Civil Unions in Vermont: Statistics

CIVIL UNIONSIn 2002, 1707 civil unions were established in Vermont, down from 1875 in 2001. The highest number occurred in July (225).Civil unions involving out-of-state residents accounted for almost 90 percent of the total number of civil unions (Table I-2), a 3 percent increase from 2001. The states with the largest number of residents who established civil unions were New York, followed by Massachusetts and Florida (Table I-1). The largest number of Vermont residents who established civil unions resided in Chittenden County (Table I-2).Seventy-one percent of the civil unions were between female partners, up from 67 percent in 2001, and the most common age group for both male and female partners was 35 to 39 (Table I-4). Civil union partners tend to be highly educated: 55% completed at least four years of college (Table I-5).Table I-6 shows the total number of civil unions or marriages, including the current civil union, that each person has been a party to during their lives. For 76 percent of the civil union partners, this was their first union, or marriage.DISSOLUTIONSThe dissolution of civil unions follows the same procedures, same requirements, rights, and obligations as divorces. There were 9 dissolutions in 2002.

MARRIAGESIn 2002, 6011 marriages were performed in Vermont, 28 more than in 2001. The Vermont rate was 9.8 per 1,000 population, the lowest rate in Vermont in more than 20 years, but higher than the 2002 U.S. provisional rate of 7.8. Marriages between two out-of-state residents accounted for 34.5 percent of the marriages in Vermont (Table G-2).There was the usual seasonal variation with more marriages occurring in summer than in any other season. August was the most popular month for marriages in 2002 (Table G-7).Just under half (49.6 percent) of the marriages were firsts for both bride and groom (Table G-5). Sixty-one percent were first marriages for the bride and 62 percent were first marriages for the groom. Remarriages for both bride and groom accounted for 26.9 percent of marriages in Vermont.The percentage of civil ceremonies increased to 60.9 percent in 2002 (Table G-8). This percent has increased every year since 1990 when it was 47.2 percent.DIVORCESThere were 2,653 divorces granted in 2002, an increase of 16 from 2001. This represents a rate of 4.3 per 1,000 residents, slightly higher than the 2002 U.S. provisional rate of 4.0.The median length of marriages ending in divorce was 9 years 5 months, with a range of 1 month to 52 years 3 months. Almost fifty-eight percent of divorces followed a separation of a year or longer (Table H-3). The median age at the time of divorce was 38 for women with a range of 19 to 81 years. The median age at the time of divorce was 41 for men with a range of 19 to 82 years.In 2002, 50.7 percent of divorces involved at least one child under the age of 18 (Table H-5), and a total of 2,428 children (Table H-7) were involved in a divorce. This represents an estimated 1.6 percent of all children residing in Vermont.

In other words, 1 out of 18 same sex couples are divorced in 2002. This does not count the number of years they were together before legitimizing their relationships