Retirement and divorce: the key statistics
How often American marriages end, who is divorcing now, and how much retirement money is on the table when they do — every figure below is drawn from a primary source (CDC, Census-based research, Vanguard's recordkeeping data, the IRS, and the statutes themselves), linked so you can check us. Cite freely; a link back is appreciated.
- 672,502 divorces were recorded in 2023 (45 reporting states plus D.C.) — a rate of 2.4 per 1,000 people, against 2,041,926 marriages at 6.1 per 1,000 (CDC provisional data).
- Divorce is aging. The divorce rate for adults 50 and older has more than doubled since 1990, and for 65+ it roughly tripled — from 1.8 to 5.5 per 1,000 married persons by 2021 — while the under-25 rate fell from 47.2 to 19.7.
- The 401(k) at stake is often six figures. The average Vanguard participant balance was $148,153 in 2024 (median $38,176) — and for ages 55–64, the prime gray-divorce years, the average was $271,320.
- The retirement checks last decades. At 65, remaining life expectancy is about 18.2 years for men and 20.7 for women — the annuity a divorce court is dividing.
How often marriages end
The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics counts 672,502 divorces and annulments in 2023 across the 45 states (plus D.C.) that report them — a provisional rate of 2.4 per 1,000 total population. Marriages ran just over three times that pace: 2,041,926, a rate of 6.1 per 1,000. Both rates have drifted down for decades; the often-quoted “half of marriages end in divorce” is a relic of 1980s peak rates rather than a description of today's cohorts.
The gray-divorce shift — why retirement is now the main event
The age profile of divorce has inverted. Bowling Green State University's National Center for Family & Marriage Research tracks divorce rates by age: between 1990 and 2021, the rate for adults under 25 collapsed from 47.2 to 19.7 per 1,000 married persons, while the rate for adults 50 and older more than doubled and the 65-plus rate nearly tripled, from 1.8 to 5.5.
The economics follow directly: a 28-year-old's divorce divides student loans and a lease; a 58-year-old's divides three decades of retirement savings, a pension, and a house. That is why QDROs, pension valuations, and survivor-benefit elections have moved from the footnotes of family law to the center of it.
How much retirement money is on the table
Vanguard's How America Saves 2025 — recordkeeping data on nearly five million defined-contribution participants — puts the average account balance at $148,153 and the median at $38,176 for 2024, up 10 and 8 percent from 2023. The spread by age is what matters for divorce, because the accounts peak exactly when gray divorce does:
| Age | Average balance | Median balance |
|---|---|---|
| 25–34 | $42,640 | $16,255 |
| 35–44 | $103,552 | $39,958 |
| 45–54 | $188,643 | $67,796 |
| 55–64 | $271,320 | $95,642 |
| 65+ | $299,442 | $95,425 |
Three more distribution facts from the same report: nearly 3 in 10 participants hold less than $10,000, another 3 in 10 hold more than $100,000, and 16 percent hold $250,000 or more. Men's balances run about 30 percent higher than women's on average ($171,859 vs. $126,971) — one reason the division of the larger account is so often the financially decisive item in the settlement.
How long the divided checks last
When a pension or a QDRO share is paid as a lifetime annuity, its value rides on life expectancy. Per the CDC's final mortality data for 2023, a 65-year-old man can expect about 18.2 more years and a 65-year-old woman about 20.7 — roughly 220 to 250 monthly checks. That horizon is the quiet driver of every present-value fight: at the IRS's published minimum present value segment rates (4.42, 5.47, and 6.31 percent for May 2026), small changes in assumed longevity or interest move six-figure valuations by tens of thousands of dollars.
The machinery of division, in numbers
- 20 percent — the mandatory federal withholding on a retirement-plan distribution paid to you rather than directly rolled over, per IRS rollover rules — the number that makes the QDRO cash-out window worth planning around.
- $300 vs. $1,200 — one large plan's published QDRO review fee for an order following its model language versus a custom-drafted one, with review windows of 10 versus 60 business days (Microsoft/Fidelity QDRO guidelines). Our cost guide breaks down the full fee stack.
- 50 percent — the federal cap on how much of a military member's disposable retired pay can go to property-division orders under 10 U.S.C. §1408; ten years of marriage overlapping ten of service is what unlocks direct payment from DFAS (the military guide covers both).
- One year — the deadline for a former spouse's deemed Survivor Benefit Plan election under 10 U.S.C. §1450(f)(3), and one of the most unforgiving dates in retirement division.
- 18 months — how long ERISA requires a plan to segregate disputed amounts while a domestic relations order's qualification is being determined; the timeline mechanics are in our QDRO timeline guide.
- 30 percent of each check — what the standard Majauskas coverture formula yields for an ex-spouse after an 18-year marriage inside a 30-year career (18 ÷ 30 × 50 percent), per the New York State Comptroller's guidance.
Citing these statistics
Everything on this page traces to the primary sources listed below — government vital statistics, university research centers, plan-recordkeeper data, statutes, and agency guidance. When citing, please attribute the underlying source (e.g., “CDC/NCHS,” “Vanguard, How America Saves 2025”) and feel free to link this page for the assembled picture. For the mechanics behind the numbers, start with the QDRO cornerstone guide or put your own figures into the calculators.
