In our previous post, we started looking at a recent New York Times article discussing the closing divorce gap between rural and urban America.

In looking at the profound changes that have taken place in rural areas, the New York Times looked at Sioux County, Iowa, whose divorce rate has increased seven times what it was back in the 1970s.

One resident of the Sioux County, 52-year-old Nancy Vermeer, told the New York Times that increased confidence and education contributed to her divorce. After graduating, she married her high school sweetheart, who was from a farming family. He never went to college, took a job in a window factory, and eventually developed a gambling habit. She not only went to college, but later went on to earn her master's degree, and became a music teacher. Her husband eventually asked for a divorce after the two had grown apart. The two divorced in 2002, making Ms. Vermeer the first teacher in her Christian school to obtain a divorce.

Sioux County is a particularly Christian County, with 80 percent of its residents claiming to belong to a major Christian denomination, compared to 36 percent of Americans. Historically, Sioux County has been a more traditional county. It issued its first liquor license in late 1970s. Back in those times, stores were closed on Sundays and women participated in the workforce at a level far below the national average. And divorce was quite rare. Census data from 1980 show that there were over 52 married people for every divorced person. On the national level, that kind of divorce rate hasn't been seen since the 1930s.

Like many rural areas, though, Sioux County has not been left untouched by major changes in economics, marriage and family life. One court administrator in northwestern Iowa said it used to be rare to see custody cases between unmarried people, so much so that the court didn't even categorize them. That changed, though, around 10 years ago. Nowadays it is common for children to be born out of wedlock, with one in three children being born to unmarried parents.

Less educated Americans are statistically more likely to have children outside wedlock than those with college degrees, and are more likely to divorce if they do marry. While this pattern was once viewed as primarily affecting poor urban dwellers, it is now a phenomenon in rural areas as well.

The bottom line is that studies are increasingly showing that there is coming to be less and less distinction between rural and urban married people in terms of divorce. Profound changes have brought this trend about, and it has, in turn, resulted in profound changes.

Source: New York Times, "Once Rare in Rural America, Divorce Is Changing the Face of Its Families," Sabrina Tavernise and Robert Bebeloff, 24 Mar 2011.