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Couples rarely split over one dramatic moment. The data shows divorce is usually the end of a slow erosion, and the main reasons people name are surprisingly consistent across studies. Lack of commitment tops the list, cited by 75% of divorced individuals in a peer-reviewed study.
The 10 reasons below are ranked by how often divorcing people cite them, with the real numbers behind each one and a source for every figure. What those reasons mean in a Florida case is a separate question, because the law works differently than most people expect.
The 10 Most-Cited Contributors to Divorce
| Rank | Reason | Share who cite it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lack of commitment | 75% | Scott et al., 2013 |
| 2 | Poor communication | 65% | Survey of 100 mental health professionals |
| 3 | Infidelity | 59.6% | Scott et al., 2013 |
| 4 | Too much conflict and arguing | 57.7% | Scott et al., 2013 |
| 5 | Partner with debt | 54% | National Debt Relief, 2023 |
| 6 | Marrying too young | 45.1% | Scott et al., 2013 |
| 7 | Domestic abuse | 23.5% | Scott et al., 2013 |
| 8 | Health problems | 18.2% | Scott et al., 2013 |
| 9 | Lack of family support | 17.3% | Scott et al., 2013 |
| 10 | Religious differences | 13.3% | Scott et al., 2013 |
Lack of commitment is the most cited reason for divorce. In Scott et al. (2013), 75% of divorced participants named it as a major contributor, the highest share of any factor. It is also the vaguest, which is part of why it ranks so high.
People use “lack of commitment” to describe a pattern, not a single act. One spouse stops investing. Date nights end, hard conversations get avoided, and the relationship runs on autopilot until one person decides they are done.
Commitment erosion often shows up before the more dramatic causes do. By the time infidelity or constant fighting appears, the underlying detachment is usually already there. That sequencing is why so many people point back to commitment when they reflect on what happened.
Communication problems are cited as the single most common factor in divorce by a wide margin. In a survey of 100 mental health professionals, 65% named it the top driver, ahead of an inability to resolve conflict at 43%.
This is the reason couples therapists see most. It rarely means people stopped talking. More often they kept talking but stopped listening, or every exchange turned into a fight.
Psychologist John Gottman spent decades studying this. His research identified four communication patterns, criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling, that predict divorce with striking accuracy. Contempt, the habit of treating a spouse with disrespect, is the strongest single warning sign.
Infidelity is named as a major contributor by 59.6% of divorced individuals, making it the third most cited reason overall. For many couples it is the visible breaking point rather than the root cause.
An affair rarely starts the decline. More often it follows the detachment and poor communication already discussed. That said, it tends to be the moment a spouse decides to file, which is why it looms so large in people’s memory of why the marriage ended.
Usually not by much. Florida is no-fault, so a judge won’t punish a cheating spouse simply for the affair. It can matter in narrow ways. If marital money was spent on the affair, that spending can affect how property is divided under the state’s equitable distribution rules.
Yes, and the data backs it up. Too much conflict and arguing was named by 57.7% of divorced participants as a major contributor to their split. Frequent, unresolved conflict wears couples down over years.
The issue is rarely the number of arguments. It is how they go. Couples who fight but repair, apologize, and move on tend to last. Couples who let arguments curdle into contempt tend not to.
Money is one of the most reliable predictors of divorce. A national study of 4,574 couples found that financial disagreements were the strongest single argument type predicting divorce, ahead of arguments about children, sex, or in-laws (Dew, Britt & Huston, 2012).
Debt makes it worse. In a National Debt Relief survey, 54% of people said a partner carrying significant debt was reason enough to consider divorce. Note that this figure is about debt specifically, not money troubles in general.
Arguments about money are rarely just about dollars. They signal mismatched values around security, freedom, and trust. When one spouse hides spending or debt, the breach of trust often does more damage than the balance itself.
Marrying young is one of the strongest demographic risk factors for divorce. CDC data show that 48% of women who married before age 18 had their first marriage break up within 10 years, versus 24% of women who married at 25 or older. That is close to a two-to-one gap (Bramlett & Mosher, CDC/NCHS).
In the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics NLSY79 data, marriages that begin in the teens and early twenties divorce at far higher rates than marriages formed later.
The pattern holds in self-reports too. In Scott et al. (2013), 45.1% of divorced participants cited “marrying too young” as a major contributor. Maturity, finances, and identity all keep developing into the late twenties, and a marriage formed before that often strains as both people change.
The trend is improving, though. The refined divorce rate for people ages 15 to 24 dropped from 47.2 per 1,000 in 1990 to 19.2 in 2023, the sharpest decline of any age group, according to Bowling Green State University’s National Center for Family & Marriage Research (Westrick-Payne, 2025). Fewer teenagers marry at all now, and those who wait tend to be more stable when they do.
Domestic abuse was cited as a major contributor by 23.5% of divorced individuals in the Scott study. Unlike the vaguer reasons higher on the list, this one carries direct legal weight in Florida.
Abuse is one of the few situations where conduct sharply changes a Florida case. It affects time-sharing decisions, can support an injunction for protection, and may justify exclusive use of the family home.
Serious illness strains marriages, but it ranks lower than people expect. In Scott et al. (2013), 18.2% of divorced participants cited health problems as a major contributor. The figure covers physical illness and incapacity reported by participants, not mental-health diagnoses, which the study did not measure separately.
Chronic illness reshapes a marriage. Roles shift, one spouse becomes a caregiver, intimacy changes, and medical costs add financial pressure. For some couples that deepens the bond. For others it becomes the strain that breaks it.
A lack of support from family was named by 17.3% of divorced participants as a major contributor. Marriages don’t exist in a vacuum, and a couple cut off from a supportive network carries more weight alone.
This cuts two ways. Some couples lack support entirely. Others have family that is too involved, taking sides or undermining the marriage. Both extremes raise the strain.
Religious differences were the least cited of the top reasons, named by 13.3% of divorced participants. On its own, a faith gap rarely ends a marriage. It tends to surface other conflicts instead.
The friction usually shows up around decisions, not beliefs. How to raise the children, which holidays to observe, and how to spend money and time can turn a quiet difference into a recurring fight, especially after kids arrive.
The widest-ranging look at divorce and religion in the United States comes from the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study, which surveys more than 35,000 adults across every major tradition. The 2014 edition is still the most complete single-source breakdown, and the 2023-24 wave is rolling out in stages through 2026.
In the 2014 Pew data, the share of U.S. adults currently divorced or separated looked like this by tradition:
The spread is narrower than many headlines suggest. Christians, religious “nones,” and most non-Christian traditions all cluster between 7% and 14%. Historically Black Protestants sit at the high end, Hindus and Mormons at the low end.
A September 2026 Pew follow-up on Latter-day Saints confirmed the 7% figure for lifelong members and reported 17% among people who had left the LDS church. That gap points to a pattern researchers have found across traditions: active religious practice correlates with lower divorce rates, not religious affiliation on paper alone.
For a Jacksonville divorce, these national patterns are context, not a predictor. Florida’s statutes govern property division, parenting plans, and alimony regardless of religious background. If you are facing divorce in Jacksonville, our Jacksonville divorce attorneys can help you understand what applies to your situation.
Among heterosexual married couples, women file for divorce roughly two times out of three. Stanford research presented to the American Sociological Association found that women initiated 69% of divorces, versus 31% for men (Rosenfeld, 2015). The gender gap disappears for unmarried couples, where the researchers found no significant difference in who ended the relationship.
Researchers link the pattern to how women often experience marriage itself. Many report more dissatisfaction with the division of labor and emotional support, and they tend to voice it sooner. Men more often delay a decision until they feel more settled financially.
In a no-fault state like Florida, who files first does not change the legal outcome, but it often shapes the pace and tone of the case.
Here is what surprises most people: in Florida, the reason your marriage ended usually has little to do with the divorce itself. Florida is a no-fault state. The usual ground is that the marriage is “irretrievably broken” under Fla. Stat. § 61.052.
You don’t prove your spouse cheated, overspent, or checked out. You don’t need their permission either. That keeps the focus off blame and on the practical questions: property, support, and the children.
Conduct can move the needle on specific issues, even in a no-fault system:
Property division. Florida splits marital assets by equitable distribution under Fla. Stat. § 61.075. If a spouse wasted marital money on an affair or hid debt, a judge can weigh that.
Time-sharing. Since July 1, 2023, Florida law starts from a rebuttable presumption that equal, 50/50 time-sharing serves the child’s best interest under Fla. Stat. § 61.13.
To rebut that presumption, a party must show by a preponderance of the evidence that equal time-sharing is not in the child’s best interests. Evidence of abuse or neglect is one of the clearest grounds, though far from an exhaustive list.
Alimony. Florida ended permanent alimony on July 1, 2023 under SB 1416. Courts now award bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, or durational support, with caps tied to the length of the marriage.
Seeing your marriage in this list doesn’t mean divorce is inevitable. Many couples recover from communication breakdown or financial conflict with real work. But it helps to know your options before you decide.
Start with the pattern, not the symptom. A licensed marriage and family therapist can help with the communication habits Gottman flagged, and many couples see progress. The earlier you address contempt and stonewalling, the better the odds.
Get organized before you file. Gather financial records, list marital assets and debts, and think about a parenting schedule. In Florida, full financial disclosure is required, so accurate records save time and money. A consultation early on, even if you are unsure, helps you understand your rights and avoid costly missteps.
Talk to a Jacksonville Divorce Attorney: If your marriage is showing these signs, a confidential consultation can help you understand your options under Florida law. Sacks & Sacks has guided Jacksonville families through divorce for more than 25 years. Schedule a Consultation or call (904) 396-5557.
The number one reason for divorce is lack of commitment. In a peer-reviewed study of divorced individuals (Scott et al., 2013), 75% named it as a major contributor to the end of their marriage, more than any other factor. Communication problems and infidelity rank close behind.
The main reason people cite for divorce is lack of commitment, at 75% in Scott et al. (2013). Money is the strongest single argument type predicting divorce in longitudinal research (Dew, Britt & Huston, 2012), but by self-report, commitment erosion comes first.
The leading cause of divorce in the research literature is lack of commitment, named by 75% of divorced individuals in a peer-reviewed study. Communication problems (65%) and infidelity (59.6%) are the next most-cited factors. In Florida, no fault needs to be proven for the divorce itself, though conduct like financial waste or abuse can affect property division, time-sharing, and alimony.
Lack of commitment is the most cited reason. In a peer-reviewed study of divorced individuals, 75% named it as a major contributor to the end of their marriage. Communication problems (65%) and infidelity (59.6%) rank close behind.
Usually not for the divorce itself. Florida is a no-fault state, so the only legal ground is that the marriage is irretrievably broken under Fla. Stat. § 61.052. The reason can still shape alimony, time-sharing, and property division when conduct like abuse or financial waste is involved.
Among people who had married by age 55, about 46% had divorced at least once, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the NLSY79. Marriages that begin at younger ages fail far more often than those that start later.
Both rank high. A survey of 100 mental health professionals found communication problems were the most cited factor at 65%. Separate longitudinal research found financial disagreements were the strongest single predictor of divorce among common arguments.
No. Florida eliminated permanent alimony effective July 1, 2023 under SB 1416. Courts may still award bridge-the-gap, rehabilitative, or durational alimony, but the length and amount are now capped by formula tied to the length of the marriage.
In the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study (2014 data, the most recent complete breakdown), Historically Black Protestants reported the highest share of adults currently divorced or separated at 19%. Evangelical Protestants came next at 14%, followed by Mainline Protestants and Catholics at 12% each. Hindus and Latter-day Saints sat at the low end at 5% and 7%. These figures reflect current marital status, not “ever divorced” rates, which are higher across every group.
Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study grouped atheists with the broader religiously unaffiliated category, which reported 11% currently divorced or separated. That is slightly below Evangelicals (14%) and Catholics (12%) and above Hindus (5%) and Latter-day Saints (7%). Earlier Barna Group research reported higher lifetime divorce rates for atheists at around 30%, though those are “ever divorced” figures and reflect a different sampling approach.
✓Reviewed by
Family Law Attorney & Partner, Sacks & Sacks
