More than 24,000 couples divorce in Washington every year. Approximately half of them involve custody disputes over minor children. Thousands of parents make major decisions that impact their children — who suddenly find themselves with more than one home.
Divorce is not only about the separation of a couple, it is also about the dividing of assets and debts that they have accumulated over the course of the marriage. Approximately 25,000 couples go through the painful and often contentious process of inventorying and dividing assets every year in a Washington divorce.
Washington has one of the nation’s top ten divorce rates, coming in at 9.6 percent according to a recent study from the American Community Survey. That rate placed the state tied for the ninth highest rate with Nevada, and 1.9 percent higher than the national average. Data was calculated based on divorces per 1,000 women aged 15 or above in the state.