The baby boomer generation makes up the vast majority of divorces. Most of those divorces occurred after the age of 50.
Why are boomers divorcing at such high rates?
Underlying issues
The generation before them generally stayed married no matter what. As a result, the baby boomers often learned to sweep issues under the rug until they festered and exploded, causing major rifts in their marriages.
Their children grow up
Many “stay together for the kids” and find themselves struggling once the children grow up, become financially independent adults and start to move out of the house. The concept of maintaining an unhappy marriage is often the result of financial stability. Parents try to keep the marriage together so the children will have everything they need.
Financial independence for women
The boomer generation was the start of the working mother. The generations before typically adhered to the working dad, stay-at-home-mother model. As a result, many women who stayed in marriages could not leave because they did not have the income to financially support themselves or the job opportunities to try. Boomer women started normalizing women in the workforce and had more financial resources available, allowing them to divorce.
Abuse or infidelity
Common causes of divorce in any generation are abuse and infidelity. For boomers, it is the most common reason they divorce later in life. For some, abuse, infidelity or both carried on for years before they decided to end the marriage.
Before so many boomers divorce later in life, they are often high-asset divorces.
