No, divorce rates in Washington didn’t rise during the pandemic

Submitted by Ari Asercion on
Divorce filings peaked consistently in March and August over a 14-year period.University of Washington

Associate Professor Julie Brines was recently featured in King5 about divorce rates taken from census data from the last decade, as well as during the pandemic. In 2016, Brines co-authored a study that showed a seasonal pattern with divorce rates, which peak annually each spring, presumably because people give rocky marriages one last chance in the winter. However, there has been a noticeable dip in divorce filings since Spring 2020, likely as a result of several factors, including court closures during the pandemic. 

"There's a very pronounced seasonal pattern to divorce,” explained Julie Brines, a sociologist at the University of Washington with a Ph.D. from Harvard. “[Divorce filing] happens to peak in March, pretty consistently throughout the country, and then dips fairly dramatically in April. There also tends to be another peak in August and September, right after the summer vacation period."

Read the full article and watch the interview at King5 News

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