The jobs with the highest (and lowest) divorce rates
July 12, 2026 · 1 min read
Bartenders and casino workers near 50 percent, actuaries under 20. What census data says about work and divorce, and why the pattern is mostly about money and hours.
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Your job will not divorce you. But census data shows some professions divorce a lot more than others, and the pattern behind the table is one of the clearest in family statistics.
The high end
Analyses of American Community Survey data, popularized by statistician Nathan Yau at FlowingData, consistently find the highest divorce rates in nightlife, gaming, and transportation work. Bartenders, casino and gaming managers, flight attendants, and bus drivers all appear near the top, with divorce rates approaching 50 percent among workers around age 50 in some analyses.
The low end
At the other end of the table sit actuaries, at roughly 14 to 17 percent depending on the analysis, along with clergy, physicians, scientists, and software engineers. The common threads are high education, high income, and regular schedules.
What actually explains it
- Income: divorce rates fall steadily as household income rises.
- Schedules: night, weekend, and on-the-road work strains any marriage.
- Stability: jobs with unpredictable income add chronic financial stress.
- Selection: who chooses a job differs before marriage ever enters the picture.
In other words, the table is mostly a proxy for money, hours, and stress. An actuary is not protected by actuarial science, and a bartender is not doomed by the bar. The conditions around the work do the talking.
If you are past the statistics
Whatever your line of work, the divorce process itself is the same set of forms and rules. See what applies where you live in our state guides, and if money is the worry, start with our guides to the cheapest way to divorce and fee waivers.
