Divorce lawyer Suzanne Griffiths sees it in the loaded court docket, in her own caseload and now among the numbers crunched by a local magazine.
The next epicenter of marital upheaval, the new Splitsville, Colo.: fast-growing Douglas County.
As the median age of residents creeps toward 40 and midlife crisis in the relatively upscale Denver suburb, Griffiths anticipates a once-modest divorce rate could be poised to spike – if it hasn’t already.
“It’s so busy, basically it’s hard to keep up,” said Griffiths, who works out of Lone Tree. “People are getting older, they’ve bought houses with their young children, they hit the midlife age group – and that’s when marriages go south.”
The numbers point in the same direction, according to an analysis of state data in the current issue of Divorce in Denver, a bimonthly publication aimed at professionals who deal in divorce as well as individuals facing the issue firsthand.
The magazine averaged divorce data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment by county and by region from 2001 through 2004. In general, it found that marital malaise moved steadily west from statistical lows (4.4 divorces annually per 1,000 population) on the Eastern Plains to a high of 5.5 on the Western Slope.
The magazine also found that factors often linked to divorce – such as population and financial stress – weren’t always accurate predictors of marital breakup.
And while acknowledging that the reasons behind the numbers rest largely on speculation, editor and publisher Cyndee Rae noted that one “overriding trend” seemed to be median age. Counties where that figure runs in the mid- to late 30s tend to have higher divorce rates, she said.
Although the magazine’s analysis pegged Douglas County at a modest 4.0 divorces per 1,000 – the state average was 4.5 – it also noted that in the 2000 census, the county’s average age stood at 34.
Hence the dismal forecast.
“It’s becoming the divorce capital, now that couples are hitting that median age,” said Rae.
But Griffiths warned that those who make it past the midlife crisis aren’t necessarily out of the woods. In the past few years she has seen a “new life crisis” kick in at the onset of the Golden Years.
“I’m seeing more people who at 61 or 62 suddenly decide they want a divorce,” she said. “I think it’s because people are living longer. And Viagra is the other issue.”
The magazine story, by free lancer Robert Ebisch, explores the numbers – from Alamosa County’s state-high rate of more than 6.5 divorces per 1,000 population to Mineral County’s low of 2.3 – and offers possible explanations.
Even in the distant San Luis Valley, the article raised the eyebrows of Alamosa-based psychotherapist Carrie Payne, whose work includes marriage counseling. Though surprised to find her county with the leading divorce rate, she offered that a combination of economics and geography could have something to do with it.
“It’s occurring to me that a tremendous amount of travel is required for people to find work,” Payne said. “And (married couples) being far from each other all the time would not be that easy. There certainly isn’t any work to speak of outside Alamosa. And maybe people who live in outlying towns end up moving here and divorce here.”
“Divorce in Denver,” which began publishing last year and prints 20,000 copies, uses direct mail to reach professionals such as lawyers and counselors but also is distributed among divorce recovery groups and court-ordered parenting-after- divorce classes, Rae said. It’s also available on newsstands.
“We try to get it into the hands of people who need it directly or people who work with those who need it,” she said.
Staff writer Kevin Simpson can be reached at 303-820-1739 or ksimpson@denverpost.com.
