
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 4, 1990                   TAG: 9004040070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

STUDY: MORE DIVORCEES GO TO THE CHAPEL

Divorced people are apparently undeterred by their experience, heading for the altar at higher rates than single folks, a new government report says.

There were 807 marriages for every 10,000 divorced women in 1987, the National Center for Health Statistics reported. That compared with 589 marriages per 10,000 single women.

Among men, the marriage rate was 1,157 per 10,000 divorced men, compared with 488 for single ones, the center said.

"People who do things tend to do them again, movers move, marriers marry," Barbara Foley Wilson, a population analyst at the center, said Tuesday.

In addition, many divorced women have children and "may be interested in having help raising them," she said.

Wilson pointed out that over the years there has been a steady growth in what she called "partial" remarriages in which one partner was previously married.

Marriages involving single women and divorced men increased from 6.9 percent of all marriages in 1970 to 11.0 percent in 1987. Those involving single men and previously divorced women rose from 6.4 percent to 10.4 percent of marriages over the same period.

And over that time span marriages involving two previously divorced people rose from 10.7 percent to 19.1 percent of marriages across the country.

The report, although for 1987, provides the most current detailed information on marriages, which declined to just over 2.40 million in that year. Preliminary totals have disclosed a further drop to 2.39 million in 1988 with an apparent leveling off in 1989.

by CNB