The United States Bureau of the Census published in 1909 a special report upon marris age and divorce, covering the 40-year period, 1867 to 1906. The report shows that the total number of divorces granted in the United States in that period was 1,274,341, of which number 945,625 were granted in the latter 20 years —1::7 to 1906. Each 5-year period for the whole 40 years showed a marked increase over the 5 years immediately preceding, aver aging about 30 per cent. During these periods the population was increasing only about 10 per cent.
Of the 945,625 divorces granted between 1887 and 1906, the causes for divorce arose after marriage in 922,152 cases. In 415,742 cases the cause was abandonment, or desertion; in 255,155 cases, cruel or inhuman treatment; in 174,558 cases, adultery; in 105,162 cases, neglect of duty, or to make proper provision; in 54,283 cases, habitual drunkenness; in 8,841 cases, conviction of felony; in 1,136 cases, vio lent temper; in 244 cases, insanity. Of divorces for causes existing at the time of marriage, there were 3,921. Of this total, bigamy ac counted for 1,203; impotency for 1,092; and du ress, force or fraud, for 465.
In the same 20-year period there were granted to husbands, 316,149 divorces, and to wives, 629,476. The causes on which the grants were made to husbands were: for desertion, 156,283; for adultery, 90,890; for cruelty, 33, 178; for drunkenness, 3,436. The causes on which the grants were made to wives were: for desertion, 211,219; for cruelty, 173,047; for adultery, 62,869; for neglect, 34,664; for drunk enness, 33,080.
The largest proportion were granted the third, fourth or fifth year of marriage, being about 8 per cent of the whole for each of those years. About 5 per cent were granted in the first year, and 7 per cent in each of the sec ond and sixth years. Half of the total number were granted before the close of the ninth year.
Geographically, the larger percentage of di vorces granted obtains in the West, being about four times that of the Atlantic seaboard States. The Central section shows a rate about 235 that of the East. Concretely, the figures show that since 1900 the annual dissolution of mar riages in the United States has amounted to four out of each 1,000 marriages then existing.
The latest available figures for the several States are for 1900 and give the actual number of divorces granted in that year per each 100, 000 married persons in the State, as follows: Washington, 513; Montana, 497; Colorado, 409; Arkansas, 399; Texas, 391,• Oregon, 368; Wyo ming, 361; Indiana, 355; Idaho, 347; Oklahoma, 346; Arizona, 344; Indian Territory, 326; Ne vada, 315; California, 297• Kansas, 286; Maine, 282; Missouri, 281; Rhode Island, 281; Utah, 274; New Hampshire, 272; South Dakota, 270; North Dakota, 268; Illinois, 267; Tennessee, 261; Michigan, 257; Iowa, 246; Kentucky, 237; Ohio, 231; Florida, 226; Nebraska, 226; Missis sippi, 225; Alabama, 208; New Mexico, 193; West Virginia, 183; Wisconsin, 180; Vermont, 177; District of Columbia, 162; Minnesota, 161; Connecticut, 130; Louisiana, 127; Massachu setts, 124; Virginia, 117; Maryland, 114; Pena, sylvania, 94; Georgia, 78; North Carolina, 75; New Jersey, 60; New York, 60; Delaware, 43; South Carolina, 6.
Figures for the same year for foreign coun tries are based on the total population—not upon the married population. For each 100,000 population the number of divorces and separa tions were: Japan, 215; United States, 73; Switzerland, 38; Denmark, 29; Roumania, 28; France, 26; Germany, 23; Hungary, 18; Nether lands, 16; Belgium, 13; Bulgaria, 11; Austra lia, 9; Austria, 8; Norway, 8; Sweden, 8; Fin land, 5; Scotland, 4; Italy, 3; Servia, 2; Great Britain and Ireland, 2. There are no statistics for Russia, and no parallel figures for Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America.
The differences in the divorce laws in the States account somewhat for the differences in the number of divorces granted in certain States. In some of the Western States, where high divorce rates prevail, divorces have fre quently been obtained by residents of other States before the expiration of time necessary for a residence in a State before proceedings for divorce may be legally begun. There are more divorces, in proportion to the population, granted in the United States than in Europe. The number of divorce courts in the United States will account in a great measure for this difference; nearly every county court, except in New Mexico, New Jersey and South Caro lina, or about 2,921 courts, having the power of granting divorces. There is but one di vorce court in England, 28 in Germany and 79 in France. Canada has few applications for di vorce. In the 21 years ending with 1888, 94 di vorces had been granted in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, together, and 41 in all the rest of the Dominion of Canada.