Survey
description Divorce data include all
divorces occurring in States that meet reporting criteria for inclusion in
the divorce-registration area. Divorces occurring outside the
divorce-registration area are not included.
Data
file description Data are obtained from
certificates of divorces occurring in each registration State. Records
from each State in the divorce-registration area were sampled at one of
five sampling rates used in processing 1968-90 data. Data are weighted,
based on the sampling fraction of the reporting State.
The files include one record for each
divorce in the sample. Divorce certificate numbers are not in the files. NCHS
does not distribute certificates, files, or indexes with identifying
information for divorces. Please refer to"Where
to write for vital records"
List
of data file variables at a glance Data year
Age at decree and at marriage:
Husband
Wife
Age at separation1 (1970-88):
Husband
Wife
Date of birth (month/year):
Husband
Wife
Petitioner (1974-88)
Date of marriage (month/year)
Date of separation1
(month/year; 1970-88)
Duration of marriage
Education1 (1970-88):
Husband
Wife
Month of divorce
Number of children under 18 years of age
Number of this marriage:1
Husband
Wife
Number of previous marriages ended by death1
(1970-88):
Husband
Wife
Number of previous marriages ended by divorce1
(1970-88):
Husband
Wife
Race (three categories):1
Husband
Wife
State of marriage1(1972-88)
State of divorce
State of residence:
Husband
Wife
Total number of living children1
(1970-88)
Record weight
Custody of children (1989-90)
___________________________________________________ 1Applicable
only for those States having information on the certificate.
Note: Many of these
variables are not available past 1988.
Data
file technical characteristics The divorce data files are
fixed-length files. Other characteristics are:
Data
year
Number of
records
1990
127,324
1989
125,282
1988
277,434
1987
281,246
1986
279,251
1985
277,400
1984
273,224
1983
272,327
1982
272,683
1981
279,513
1980
271,180
1979
273,819
1978
247,504
1977
245,693
1976
194,658
1975
169,904
1974
114,445
1973
107,160
1972
98,981
1971
91,431
1970
80,898
1969
72,272
1968
62,078
Geographic
coverage Divorce data are classified
by State of occurrence. The divorce-registration area included 26 States
in 1968, 28 States in 1969-70, 29 States in 1971-77, 28 States in 1978, 30
States in 1979-80, 31 States in 1981-85, and 31 States and the District of
Columbia in 1986-90. Data are not classified for counties or cities.
Data
availability Divorce data are collected
annually. Data are only available on CD-ROM for individual years from
1968-90. Beginning January 1, 1996, the availability
of marriage and divorce data collected changed. Please refer to
the notice "Change
in the Reporting of Marriage and Divorce Statistics" for
information about data after 1990.
Ordering
information Divorce public-use data can
only be purchased through the National Technical Information Service
(NTIS).
Check for availability
and contact NTISfor current ordering information.
Documentation
contents The CD-ROM package contains
the necessary documentation, including content and technical information,
needed to access the data. A discussion of the sample design, sampling
procedures, estimating procedures, and sampling errors is part of the
documentation of this file. Control total tables are also included.
Contact Reproductive Statistics
Branch
Division of Vital Statistics
National Center for Health Statistics
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
3311 Toledo Road, Room 7318
Hyattsville, Maryland 20782
(301) 458-4111