Want to avoid divorce? Get married in Mexico City.

Patrick Corcoran has also been reading Diego Valle -Jones’ recent series of statistical analysis of Mexican divorces.

Chihuahua is the state with the highest divorce rate, which means that the relatively high likelihood of a marriage ending through violent death did not overwhelm the other factors (i.e. the lack of prevalence of Catholicism) in keeping the divorce rate up.

Marriage and divorce are covered by state law (or Federal District law) in Mexico, but the marital status granted in any entity is recognized throughout the Republic.   Best known is the Federal District’s same-gender marriage law, which means persons of the same gender who are get married in Mexico City are recognized legally as a couple everywhere in Mexico.  The Federal District also has the only “no-fault” divorce laws in the country, which seems to factor into the odd statistical fact that there are more divorces in the Federal District, but less divorces by people who were originally married in that entity. 

It’s obvious that couples seeking divorces without complications (child support and spousal maintenance are separate from what the Federal District calls “divorce expres”) are getting un-hitched in the Capital, but that doesn’t explain why people originally married there have less divorces.  Surely, it can’t be they’re going to Queretaro when they need … uh… um… spousal relief. 

Diego doesn’t show any data on same-gender divorces, but if it existed, he’d dig it out.   And he’s to be commended for providing more cheerful reading than the usually appalling tally of the butcher’s bill in the war on (some) drugs.