Comments on: Can Math Help You Find Mr. or Miss Right?

By: Nathan

Nathan — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:56:30 +0000

A slight quibble. There is NO evidence that being religious decreases your chance of divorce. In fact it increases the chances. Google “divorce rates by religion” since since mental floss won’t let me point a link to my source.

I am college student who is watching their friends starting to get married. The first to get married are the most religious. They usually do it out of desire for sex or being forced into it by parents. What’s my point?

ZOMG Atheist marriages FTW. Garth Sundem made of fail. I hate it when religious people lord this stuff over the non-religious despite the fact that they are wrong about everything.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:52:01 +0000

I just calculated it for my ex boyfriend. If him and I were to get married this year, we would have a 23.23 chance of making it to our 5th anniversary. Glad we cut it off.

Apparently my parents were lucky. They made it till their 22nd anniversary before they divorced, but the calculations say that they had a 25.27% chance of making it till their 20th anniversary. Considering the amount of postsecondary education they had (14 years combined), those are low odds.

Maybe I should go ahead and date my crush. If we waited seven years (my magical number of how long to date until marriage is a topic), those odds jump to 47% with us staying till our 5th. Though I should probably up the religious factor in this, considering he’s very religious while I’m not (but he’s Jewish, which I find fascinating, and he loves talking about it with me). Or maybe I’m just unlucky and should just stick to small flings.

By: Miss Cellania

Miss Cellania — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:39:53 +0000

Boy howdy, I wouldn’t mind doing the math is there were anywhere near 100 potential mates available.

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:35:37 +0000

Well, my boyfriend and I have a 92.86% chance of making it to our 5th anniversary but only a 34.69% chance of 40th

By: mandapanda

mandapanda — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:57:09 +0000

I got all depressed when the calculator on PoliticalCalculations gave my boyfriend and me only a 9% chance of making it to our 25th anniversary (provided we marry in the next two years and have a kid). But then I crunched the numbers for him and his ex-wife and it gave them a 102% chance of making it to the 5th year. They didn’t even make it to the second. I feel better now. :-)

ReCAPTCHA of appropriateness! dissent evidence

By: Tricia

Tricia — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:56:31 +0000

My husband and I had a 40% chance of making it to our 4 year anniversary, which was last April. Here’s to beating the odds! Since I’m at my happiest I’ve ever been right now I’ll just see the 40% as a good thing.

By: Bekka

Bekka — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:23:41 +0000

My husband and i apparently have a 23% chance of making it to our 50th.. maybe another kid will help improve those odds.. at what point does the number of children start increasing the chance of divorce through additional monetary and emotional strain?

By: Orange

Orange — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:47:51 +0000

I completely agree with you as well, Craig. It seems such a huge majority of people is so obsessed with not being *alone* that they settle. After that, it’s only a matter of time before they realize how unhappy they are.

recaptcha: consists con

how appropriate…

By: Witty Nickname

Witty Nickname — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:28:36 +0000

My fourth anniversary is in December. My wife and I have a 122.38% chance of remaining married until then. But, we only have a 29% chance of staying married until our 40th anniversary. I guess my wife is right, we need more kids.

By: septer

septer — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:02:18 +0000

Craig, you spelled out my thoughts about marriage exactly.

@the post, the math became too complicated for me to follow!

my recptcha:
companion guion (whatever that means)