The number of divorces is increasing!
Well, that’s good news to those economists who see the increase in the number of divorces as evidence of an improving economy. Since the 2008 economic crises and the Great Recession many couples simply could not afford to divorce. During the recession, in 2009, the U.S. divorce rate hit a 40-year low. Locally, 2009 marked a low in Westchester and Dutchess counties and a near low in Putnam County. It was not the cost of the divorce process itself that forced unhappy marrieds to stay together; it was the hard reality that post-divorce life was just too expensive to manage. It was often considered impossible to stretch limited family income to cover the costs of two separate households. So the number of divorces decreased as the economy tanked. But for the past three years, the divorce rate locally, statewide and nationally is on the rise so it now appears that the economy has improved.
