How is the divorce rate defined in the material?

How is the divorce rate defined in the material?

• A. The number of marriages per year
• B. The number of divorces per 1000 married people per year
• C. The number of divorces per 10,000 married people per year
• D. The number of divorces per 1000 marriages per year

Answer: (B)

The key idea is that a divorce rate measures how common divorces are relative to the number of people who are actually married. In this material, it’s defined as the number of divorces in a year per 1,000 married people. This standardizes the measure by the size of the married population, so you can compare across different groups or times.

Why this fits best: counting marriages per year would tell you about marriage formation, not divorces. Using a denominator like 10,000 married people or 1,000 marriages would change what’s being measured (different denominators), and the material specifically uses divorces per 1,000 married people per year, which aligns with understanding how likely a marriage is to end in divorce for those who are married.