One way to divorce-proof a good marriage: Just give it time. Research last year from the Marriage Foundation, a research institute in the U.K., showed that risk of divorce is highest in the first ten years of marriage, but that diminishes as the years go by. Couples face about a 20 percent risk of divorce in the first ten years of marriage; after 20 years, that risk falls to 13 percent. After 30 years, the risk shrinks to 6 percent. University of Maryland sociologist Philip Cohen narrates an animated short, published earlier this month, based on similar research covered in his new book The Family: Diversity, Inequality and Social Change, and he phrases the findings this way: “The longer a marriage lasts, the more likely it is to keep on lasting.”
