Thursday, June 6, 2002

A story published today by the Beacon Journal reports that Lodi, a rural Medina County village in Ohio ranks at the top of 153 local communities in the category of divorced and not remarried.

New census figures released this week show nearly one in five or 17.5 percent of Lodi residents age 15 and older claimed that marital status in 2000.

In Portage County, the leader is Windham village (17 percent); in Wayne County, Shreve village (17 percent); in Stark County, Meyers Lake village (16 percent) and in Summit County, Lakemore village (14 percent.)

No explanation necessary for demographer Daniel Lichter, who said such tentativeness is a trend. He sees it lurking in census numbers, like the one that shows Ohio's currently divorced category grew from 9 percent in 1990 to 11 percent in 2000.

Lichter said because divorce rates across the nation have been static, the increase in the census figures simply hints at an unwillingness to get hitched again.

``It's not that there aren't men in their lives. It's not that there aren't women in their lives. It's that they're not sealing the deal with a marriage license,'' said Lichter, director of the Initiative in Population Research at Ohio State University.

Census data pulled from other categories back another of Lichter's observations -- that a lot more people are simply cohabitating. Ohio nearly doubled its number of unmarried couples in the past decade.

But what does it take for a community to be tops in the category of divorce? Several things could factor in, including levels of education (more schooling equals less risk of splitting up) and age (older populations have simply had more time to divorce).

Lichter said income also plays a role: People with lower incomes are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce if they do marry.

Having money reduces a common point of conflict, he said. ``There is a lot of truth to the idea that a good paycheck keeps marriages strong,'' Lichter said.