The provided bar charts demonstrate how many couples got married and got divorced in the United States over a period of 30 years starting from 1970, and the proportion of 4 different marital statuses among American adults in both 1970 and 2000.
From an overall perspective, although the US experienced a significant decrease in the number of marriages during 30 years, the percentage of people who got married was the highest in both recorded years.
A first look into the first chart reveals that there was a difference during the first 10 years, and from 1980 to 2000, the trends in marriage and divorce were similar. In 1970 and 1980, while the number of marriages stabilized at 2.5 million, the figure for divorces tended to increase from 1 million to nearly 1.5 million. 20 years later, the rates of people who married and divorced fell to 2 million and 1 million, respectively.
In terms of the second chart, it was noticeable that the percentage of American adults choosing to get married was the highest in the 1970s, specifically 70%. However, the figure dropped by about 10% until 2000. On the other hand, the proportion of divorced people rose from 2% to 8% in both years.