WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STATE AND LOCAL DIVORCE RATES?
The relationship between state and local divorce rates in Colorado is close: Colorado follows the national trend, running higher than the nation on the federal count of divorces and close to it on Census survey measures, and El Paso County's share of divorced residents matches the state's. Divorce has become less common for two decades, and in 2024 federal vital statistics counted 2.9 divorces per 1,000 Colorado residents, compared with 2.3 per 1,000 in the states that report nationally.
Locally, about one in ten El Paso County residents age 15 and older is currently divorced, almost exactly the state and national share. Court filings run higher: in the 2024 fiscal year, El Paso County accounted for 5,331 of Colorado's 31,081 domestic relations filings, about 17 percent, while it has about 13 percent of the state's residents.
This article explains where these numbers come from, what each measure means, and why state and local figures can differ. Where we did the arithmetic ourselves from published data, we say so.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- State and National Divorce Rates
- Divorce Rate Methodology
- Colorado Divorce Rate Statistics
- Colorado Judicial Divorce Records
- Why State and Local Divorce Figures Differ
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Talking With a Colorado Springs Family Law Attorney
- Sources
STATE AND NATIONAL DIVORCE RATES
The American Community Survey (ACS) is a yearly survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau to gather data and provide analytical reports on the demographics and socioeconomic status of the American people. Among its questions, it asks whether each person's marital status changed in the past 12 months.
The number of people who divorced in the past year can be estimated and reported using this information. The Census Bureau did not release its standard 1-year estimates from the 2020 ACS, because the pandemic disrupted data collection: the survey collected only about two-thirds of its usual responses, and the people who did respond differed significantly from those who did not.
Instead, the Census Bureau announced a series of experimental estimates. This is why standard ACS figures on national divorce rates for 2020 are unavailable. Normal releases have since resumed: the 2024 1-year estimates are the most recent available, and the Census Bureau has scheduled the 2025 estimates for release on October 29, 2026.
The Federal Count of Divorces
The other main national source is the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It compiles provisional counts of divorces and annulments received from state health departments, by the state where each divorce took place. Its national figure for recent years excludes California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota and New Mexico, so it covers the remaining states.
By that count, the U.S. divorce rate fell from 4.0 per 1,000 people in 2000 to 2.3 in 2024, and Colorado's fell from 4.7 to 2.9 over the same years (the list of reporting states differs slightly by year). NCHS suspended the collection of detailed divorce data in January 1996, so these totals say nothing about who divorced or why.
DIVORCE RATE METHODOLOGY
The Census Bureau's divorce rate divides the number of women who divorced in the last year by the total number of women age 15 and older, then multiplies the result by 1,000. That gives the number of women who divorced per 1,000 women age 15 and older: a rate per 1,000, not a percentage.
For 2024, that works out to about 6.9 nationally: roughly 987,000 women who divorced in the last year, out of about 142.8 million women age 15 and older (our calculation from the Census Bureau's 2024 ACS 1-year tables). The statistics may not be easy to understand, but the key point is that using the same method year after year allows meaningful comparisons between national and state-level divorce rates.
This allows you to compare individual states to the national average and see whether a state falls above, below, or about even with it. Because the ACS is a survey, every estimate has a margin of error, and small differences between states may not be real.
Four Common Ways to Measure Divorce
| Measure | What it counts | Latest U.S. figure | Latest Colorado figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Divorces per 1,000 people (NCHS) | Divorces and annulments recorded in a year, divided by the whole population, including children and people who have never married | 2.3 (2024, reporting states) | 2.9 (2024) |
| Women divorced per 1,000 women age 15 and older (Census Bureau, ACS) | Survey estimate of women who divorced in the past 12 months, divided by all women 15 and older | About 6.9 (2024) | About 7.8 (2024) |
| Refined divorce rate: women divorced per 1,000 married women (National Center for Family and Marriage Research, from ACS) | The same survey count, divided by married women (those married now plus those who divorced during the year), the group that can actually divorce | 14.2 (2024) | About 14.8 (2024) |
| Court filings (Colorado Judicial Branch) | Domestic relations cases opened in district court in a fiscal year; a count, not a rate, and broader than divorce | Not applicable | 31,415 cases (fiscal year 2026) |
Figures marked "about" are our calculations from the Census Bureau's published estimates. The U.S. refined rate is published by the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University; applying the same calculation to the Census tables reproduces it and gives Colorado's figure.
COLORADO DIVORCE RATE STATISTICS
For 2019, American Community Survey data work out to a national divorce rate of 7.6 per 1,000 women age 15 and older, using the method described above. That year, Colorado's rate was 7.9 per 1,000 women.
According to the numbers, there is little difference: the gap is within the survey's margin of error for Colorado. The pattern in Colorado mirrors that of the rest of the country. A further intriguing pattern is the decline in divorce rates that was taking place just before the pandemic.
Divorce rates in the United States fell between 2009 and 2019, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. In 2009, the national rate was 9.7 per 1,000 women, so by 2019 it had dropped by 2.1 divorces per 1,000 women, a decline of more than a fifth.
Divorce rates in Colorado are similar. The Census Bureau's state table for 2009 put Colorado at 9.4 per 1,000 women, slightly below the national 9.7. In 2012, Colorado's rate was about 12.0, compared with 9.8 nationally, and by 2024 the figures were about 7.8 and 6.9.
Once again, Colorado follows national tendencies: its divorce rate has fallen along with the nation's. On the Census survey measure the two are usually close, and the gap is within the margin of error in 2009, 2019 and 2024. On the federal count of divorces per 1,000 people, Colorado has run higher than the reporting states in every year from 2000 through 2024.
| Year | U.S., per 1,000 women 15+ (ACS) | Colorado, per 1,000 women 15+ (ACS) | U.S., per 1,000 people (NCHS) | Colorado, per 1,000 people (NCHS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 9.7 | 9.4 | 3.5 | 4.3 |
| 2012 | 9.8 | About 12.0 | 3.4 | 4.3 |
| 2019 | About 7.6 | About 7.9 | 2.7 | 3.3 |
| 2024 | About 6.9 | About 7.8 | 2.3 | 2.9 |
The 2009 national and Colorado ACS rates and the 2012 national rate are as published by the Census Bureau; the other ACS figures are our calculations. NCHS figures are provisional and cover reporting states only.
Colorado on the Per-Married-Women Measure
Measured against married women only, the two rates are close. The National Center for Family and Marriage Research puts the U.S. refined divorce rate at 14.2 women divorcing per 1,000 married women in 2024, down slightly from 14.4 in 2023, with the highest state rate in Oklahoma (20.7) and the lowest in Maine (10.0).
Colorado's figure, calculated the same way from the Census tables, is about 14.8, near the middle of the states. Part of the reason Colorado looks higher on the other measures is that a larger share of Coloradans are married: about 52 percent of residents 15 and older in 2024, compared with about 49 percent nationally (the Census count of married people includes those who are separated).
El Paso County
The NCHS tables stop at the state level. For El Paso County, the ACS shows how many residents are currently divorced, meaning they have divorced and not remarried, which is a snapshot rather than a yearly rate.
In 2024, about 10.3 percent of El Paso County residents 15 and older were currently divorced (about 62,900 of 613,300), compared with 10.4 percent statewide and 10.3 percent nationally. A larger share of El Paso County residents were married, about 56 percent, compared with 52 percent statewide.
On this measure, the local picture mirrors the state and the nation almost exactly. Colorado's courts publish a third kind of number: how many cases are filed.
COLORADO JUDICIAL DIVORCE RECORDS
The Colorado Judicial Branch maintains records on the number of cases filed in each district court in the state and publishes them in annual statistical reports, making this data available to anybody interested. Its fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.
These figures are obtained differently than the ACS. While the ACS estimates how many people divorced, the Judicial Branch reports how many domestic relations cases were filed. That category includes dissolutions of marriage and civil unions, legal separations, declarations of invalidity, allocation of parental responsibilities cases and administrative support orders.
In fiscal year 2019, 33,610 domestic relations cases were filed in Colorado's district courts, according to the Judicial Branch's fiscal year 2024 statistical report. There were 30,697 filed in fiscal year 2020 and 31,465 in fiscal year 2021. So filings in Colorado fell in 2020 but then edged up slightly in 2021, while staying below 2019.
| Fiscal year (July to June) | Domestic relations cases filed, Colorado |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 33,610 |
| 2020 | 30,697 |
| 2021 | 31,465 |
| 2022 | 31,168 |
| 2023 | 30,991 |
| 2024 | 31,081 |
| 2025 | 31,228 |
| 2026 | 31,415 |
Fiscal years 2019 to 2024 come from the fiscal year 2024 annual report, the latest listed on the Judicial Branch's annual statistical reports page. The fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026 figures come from its reports on cases without attorney representation, which count cases by filing date as of the day the data were pulled, so they are close to, but not exactly comparable with, the annual report.
If Colorado's tendencies mirror the nation's, we could expect a dip in divorce rates in 2020, followed by an uptick in 2021. That is what the federal counts later showed: the U.S. rate dipped from 2.7 per 1,000 people in 2019 to 2.3 in 2020 and rose to 2.5 in 2021, while Colorado's went from 3.3 to 2.9 and then 3.0. Both have since drifted back down, to 2.3 nationally and 2.9 in Colorado in 2024.
Filings in the Fourth Judicial District
Locally, El Paso and Teller counties make up the Fourth Judicial District. In fiscal year 2024, 5,443 domestic relations cases were filed there (5,331 in El Paso County and 112 in Teller County), and 5,300 were closed. The district received 5,483 domestic relations cases in fiscal year 2025 and 5,708 in fiscal year 2026, when it accounted for about 18 percent of the statewide total.
Relative to population, El Paso County's filings run higher than the state's. Dividing fiscal year 2024 filings by the Census Bureau's 2024 population estimates gives roughly 7 domestic relations filings per 1,000 residents in the county (5,331 filings for about 752,800 people), compared with about 5 per 1,000 statewide (31,081 for about 5.96 million). These are our calculations, and they are approximate because the fiscal year ran from July 2023 to June 2024 while the population figures are for 2024.
The reports do not say why the county's figure is higher. Because a filing count includes parenting and support cases that may not involve a marriage at all, it is not a divorce rate.
The fiscal year 2026 report also shows that in about 69 percent of the district's domestic relations cases filed that year, no attorney had entered an appearance for either side when the data were pulled, close to the statewide 68 percent. If you are weighing that choice yourself, see do you need a lawyer for a divorce.
What a Filing Means for an Individual Case
A filing starts a case; it is not a divorce. Under C.R.S. 14-10-106, at least one spouse must have been domiciled in Colorado for 91 days before the case is filed, the court must find that the marriage is irretrievably broken, and no decree can enter until at least 91 days after the court acquires jurisdiction over the responding spouse.
So a case filed in one fiscal year may end in the next, and some cases end without a decree. Because the test is domicile, not just physical presence, it can matter for military families stationed at Fort Carson and the area's other installations; see our page on military divorce in Colorado Springs and our Colorado divorce timeline.
WHY STATE AND LOCAL DIVORCE FIGURES DIFFER
When a state or county number looks different from the national one, the difference often comes from how it was measured rather than from how marriages are faring:
- Different denominators. A rate per 1,000 people counts children and never-married adults, so places with more married adults look higher. A rate per 1,000 married women removes most of that effect.
- Different sources. NCHS counts divorce records by the state where the divorce took place, and its tables note that some states include divorce petitions filed or legal separations. The ACS asks residents whether they divorced in the past year, and court reports count cases filed, including cases that are not divorces.
- Missing states. The national NCHS figure leaves out several states, including California, so it is not a true national total.
- Survey error. ACS estimates have margins of error, and they tend to be wider, relative to the estimate, for smaller populations. Colorado's 2024 estimate carries a margin of roughly plus or minus 1.3 divorces per 1,000 women (our calculation from the published margin), larger than its gap with the nation.
- Fiscal and calendar years. Colorado court figures run from July to June; federal and Census figures run by calendar year.
None of these numbers predicts what will happen in any one marriage. They describe populations, and they are most useful for seeing trends: on each measure here that reaches back that far, divorce in Colorado is less common than it was 10 or 20 years ago.
For what divorce means for the people living through it, see our article on who suffers most in divorce, and if you are deciding between options, our comparison of legal separation and divorce in Colorado.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What Is Colorado's Divorce Rate?
In 2024, Colorado recorded 2.9 divorces per 1,000 residents, according to provisional federal vital statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics. By our calculation from Census Bureau survey data, about 7.8 of every 1,000 Colorado women age 15 and older divorced in the past year.
Is Colorado's Divorce Rate Higher Than the National Rate?
On the federal count, yes: Colorado's 2.9 divorces per 1,000 residents in 2024 compares with 2.3 for the reporting states, and Colorado has been higher every year since 2000. On the 2024 Census survey measures the difference is small and within the margin of error; per 1,000 married women, the 2024 figures are about 14.8 in Colorado (our calculation) and 14.2 nationally.
Are Divorce Rates Going Down?
Yes. Provisional federal counts fell from 4.0 divorces per 1,000 people in 2000 to 2.3 in 2024 in the reporting states, and from 4.7 to 2.9 in Colorado. Census survey data show the same trend nationally: 9.8 women divorcing per 1,000 women age 15 and older in 2012, 7.1 in 2022, and about 6.9 in 2024 by our calculation.
How Many Divorce Cases Are Filed in El Paso County?
The Colorado Judicial Branch reports domestic relations filings, a category that includes divorces along with legal separations, parental responsibilities and support cases. In fiscal year 2024 (July 2023 to June 2024), 5,331 domestic relations cases were filed in El Paso County, and the Fourth Judicial District (El Paso and Teller counties) received 5,708 in fiscal year 2026.
What Is the Difference Between a Divorce Rate and the Percent Divorced?
A divorce rate counts divorces in a given year relative to a population. The percent divorced is a snapshot of everyone whose current marital status is divorced; Census Bureau estimates put about 10 percent of El Paso County residents 15 and older in that group in 2024.
TALKING WITH A COLORADO SPRINGS FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY
Statistics describe trends, not your family. If you are thinking about divorce or legal separation, or your spouse has already filed, it helps to understand how the process works in El Paso and Teller counties before you decide anything.
Moran, Allen & Associates Family Law Attorneys handles divorce in Colorado Springs and family law cases in Woodland Park. Call (719) 447-0762 in Colorado Springs or (719) 686-7554 in Woodland Park, or schedule a free consultation to talk through your situation.
This article is general information about Colorado law and published divorce statistics as of October 2026 and is not legal advice. Government agencies revise their figures and release new data regularly, so speak with a licensed Colorado attorney about your situation.
SOURCES
- C.R.S. 14-10-106, Dissolution of Marriage (Domicile, Irretrievable Breakdown and 91-Day Waiting Period)
- Colorado Judicial Branch, Annual Statistical Reports
- Colorado Judicial Branch, Annual Statistical Report, Fiscal Year 2024 (Tables 13, 14 and 16)
- Colorado Judicial Branch, Cases and Parties without Attorney Representation in Civil Cases, Fiscal Year 2025
- Colorado Judicial Branch, Cases and Parties without Attorney Representation in Civil Cases, Fiscal Year 2026
Research references
- National Center for Health Statistics (CDC), "Provisional Number of Divorces and Annulments and Rate: United States, 2000 to 2024", National Vital Statistics System.
- National Center for Health Statistics (CDC), "Divorce Rates by State: 1990, 1995, and 2000 to 2024", National Vital Statistics System, and the NCHS Marriages and Divorces page.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates: Table B12503 (Divorces in the Last Year by Sex by Marital Status; United States and Colorado, 2012, 2014, 2019 and 2024), Table B12001 (Sex by Marital Status; United States, Colorado and El Paso County, 2024) and Table B01003 (Total Population; Colorado and El Paso County, 2024).
- U.S. Census Bureau, Clayton Buck, Paul Hemez and Lydia Anderson, "How Does Your State Compare With National Marriage and Divorce Trends?" October 8, 2024.
- U.S. Census Bureau, "Divorce Rates Highest in the South, Lowest in the Northeast, Census Bureau Reports," news release CB11-144, August 25, 2011, and its Table 1, "Marriage, Divorce, and Widowhood Rates Per 1,000 Men and Women Aged 15 and Over for the Nation, Regions, and States: 2009".
- U.S. Census Bureau, "Census Bureau Announces Changes for 2020 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates", July 29, 2021.
- U.S. Census Bureau, "Census Bureau Announces Release Dates, Webinars, and Embargo of 2025 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates", October 13, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, "Marital Status / Marital History," American Community Survey, Why We Ask Each Question.
- Krista K. Westrick-Payne, "Refined Divorce Rate in the U.S.: Geographic Variation, 2024," Family Profiles FP-25-31, National Center for Family and Marriage Research, Bowling Green State University, 2025.