Divorce is difficult and its impact on well-being significant during any life stage, but there’s an added complexity to “gray divorces” – those that occur later in adulthood among adults aged 50 and older, as defined by the Journals of Gerontology. While marriages are occurring later in adulthood, so are divorces. According to 2022 research from the same journal, more than one in three people divorcing in the U.S. are 50 or older. Despite a general decline in marriage and divorce rates, gray divorce is on the rise, affecting financial circumstances in later life.
This is especially important now as a “silver tsunami” washes over America: 4.1 million adults turn 65 each year between 2024 and 2027, according to 2024 data from the Alliance for Lifetime Income. A 2019 projection by the U.S. Census Bureau suggests that older people will outnumber children by 2034.
