IDAHO, USA — While the Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) is primarily recognized as a bureau involving health information, it also manages Idaho's records program, which includes data on marriages and divorces in Idaho.
In December 2023, the department published a report of marriage and divorce statistics for the year prior, 2022.
According to the 2022 Marriage and Divorce Report, the number of overall marriages in Idaho went up by 2% between 2021 and 2022, from 14,030 to 14,304. However, the marriage rate went down slightly - from 7.6 marriages per 1,000 people in 2021 to 7.4 marriages per 1,000 people in 2022- indicating growth in Idaho's population.
Same-sex marriage became legal in Idaho in 2014. Data found that in 2022, of the 14,304 marriages in Idaho, 2% (328) were of the same sex or between a "partner and a partner" - an option that was listed on the marriage license in 2014 when the law passed.
Fast facts about Idaho marriages from the DHW data:
- The oldest groom in Idaho in 2022 was 92.
- The oldest bride was 87.
- The shortest marriage was 34 days.
- The longest marriage ending in divorce was 59 years.
- Marriages occur at a higher frequency in Idaho than in the U.S. as a whole.
In 2021, the marriage rate in the U.S. was 6 per 1,000 people according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Meanwhile, Idaho's rate was 7.6 per 1,000. DHW stated that the difference can be attributed to the high number of non-Idaho residents tying the knot in destination places, such as in northern Idaho.
Like marriages, there are also more divorces in Idaho than in the rest of the United States.
Fast facts about Idaho divorces:
- Idaho's divorce rate in 2022 was 3.5 per 1,000 people, while the U.S. divorce rate was 2.5 per 1,000, according to the CDC.
- In 10 years, Idaho's divorce rate dropped by 27% - from 4.8 divorces per 1,000 people in 2012.
- Divorces in Idaho showed a slight increase from 2021 to 2022 - from 6,392 to 6,419.
- Women are twice as likely to file for divorce than men. In 2022, 4,206 Idaho women initiated the divorce, while 2,183 men were the ones to file.
Of the 6,419 divorces in Idaho in 2022, 6,200 (96.6%) were opposite-sex divorces, 81 were same-sex divorces among females, 18 were same-sex divorces among males, and 120 did not report one or both sexes.
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