A story released today by the Associated Press reports that among U.S. communities with a population of more than 1,000, the small farming town of Fairfax, South Carolina has the highest percentage of separated people in the nation, according to the 2000 census.

Nearly 14 percent of people age 15 and older in the town of 3,200 reported that they were deliberately living apart from their spouses.

The broken marriages are attributed to the stresses of poverty, lack of education, a breakdown in family values, the demands of South Carolina's divorce law, and the presence of a maximum-security prison here, which skews the numbers.

In fact, South Carolina is second in the nation, with 3 percent of its 15-and-over population separated. Only the District of Columbia, with 4 percent, is higher. Nationally, the figure is 2 percent.

Under South Carolina law, a person seeking a divorce has to prove desertion, physical abuse, adultery or drug and alcohol abuse on the part of the spouse. But couples can opt instead for a no-fault divorce, separating for 12 months and then dissolving the marriage without a battle.

Poor people, especially, often take the separation route to save money on lawyers' fees. Or they split up and never bother to get divorced at all.

Poverty makes it harder for couples to keep their marriages together, says Clifton Flynn, a sociology professor at the University of South Carolina-Spartanburg.

"South Carolina tends to be poorer, have less education, low wage jobs, which make it stressful to maintain intimate relationships," he says.

Also, the Allendale County numbers are may be higher because it is the home of the Allendale Correctional Institution, whose inmates are listed in the census as residents of Fairfax. Many of the inmates are serving long sentences, and their spouses have filed for separation.