More than 19 percent of Wayne County residents over age 15 are divorced, according to new 2008 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. That's the highest percentage for any county with a population over 65,000 in the nation, and two other Indiana counties -- Floyd and Madison -- also made the top 10.
This particular story doesn't say how much more than the national norm that is, but the figure can be found elsewere. Nationwide, 10.7 percent of people over 15 are divorced. That makes the Wayne County deviance pretty strong. This is interesting:
Indiana is one of a handful of states that doesn't track divorce statistics. So it's hard to tell if the ranking is caused by a large number of divorces, a lot of young single people moving out of the county to attend college elsewhere or if it's just a statistical anomaly, Jackson said.
Shouldn't the state be tracking that statistic? Why don't we? The harmful effects of children being raised in one-parent homes have been pretty well documented. How can we get a handle on the problem if we don't even have the actual numbers to talk about?
Comments
Leo:
Maybe there are still a handful of people that believe that by IGNORING an issue LONG enough, it will just GO AWAY...?
Just a thought.