Marriages, divorces both decline in Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Here's the good news for the 61,000 people who got married last year in Wisconsin: divorces are down.

But so are weddings.

The annual report on marriages and divorces issued by the state Department of Health Services shows that the three-decade decline in weddings each year continued in 2009 when 30,057 couples tied the knot. That's down almost 1,400 from the previous year.

Conversely, there were 16,705 divorces last year.

Unfortunately for all the romantics out there, the ratio of marriages to divorces continues to get closer. In 2009, for every divorce there were 1.8 weddings. That compares to 2.1 a decade ago and 9.2 weddings for every divorce back in 1920.

On the Net: Wedding and divorce report: http://dhs.wisconsin.gov/stats/pdf/09mardiv.pdf

Tags: news, wisconsin, marriages, divorces