adults live without a spouse or partner enjoy fourteen the nonpartisan council in contemporary families studied the issue home. fear of divorce played a factor in the marriage rates for years the prevailing notion had been that divorce rates were higher for those who live together before marriage what the data from the council of contemporary families actually showed was that it wasn't the cohabitation that affected divorce rates it was the age at which they got married the younger people were when they got married the higher risk of divorce but what about those who had already been married sometimes multiple times so you have nine hundred sixty only fourteen million americans have been married more than once by one nine hundred eighty that number of twenty million by two thousand and fourteen that number a doubled to forty two million american adults who had been married more than once nevertheless statistics increasingly show the literally ancient institution of marriage as it is presented by religious conservatives just doesn't work in twenty seventeen and quite frankly most people d