The graphs describe how many Americans got married and divorced between 1930 and 2010.
Both marriage rates and divorce rates had a very similar pattern over the period. At the beginning of the period, these two figures recorded the lowest numbers, respectively, which were 1.3 million for the number of marriages and 190 thousand for the number of divorces. It is notable that both figures rose from 1930 to 1950, and also declined from 1960 to 1980. After 1980, they increased every decade untill 2010, which marked the largest numbers of marriages and divorces, respectively.
However, it is noted that their trends were opposite only between 1950 and 1960. Couples who got married fell from 2.4 million in 1950 to 1.9 million in 1960, while those who got divorced climbed from 400 thousand in 1950 to 600 thousand in 1960. Moreover, total divorces largely fluctuated between a low of 190 thousand in 1930 and a high of over 1 million in 2010, whereas total marriages only ranged from 1.3 million to 3.6 million.
Overall, both marriages and divorces in the USA grew between 1930 and 2010. Although their trends were almost parallel, the increase in divorces, which was around fivefold from 1930 and 2010, was much bigger than that in marriages, which only tripled over the same period.