The two bar charts illustrate data on marriages and divorces in the USA between 1970 and 2000, alongside the marital status distribution of adult Americans for two specific years within this period: 1970 and 2000. Overall, the period from 1970 to 2000 was characterised by a general decline in marriage rates and an increase in marital dissolution, reflected in a growing proportion of never-married and divorced individuals among adult Americans. A closer inspection of the first chart reveals that the number of marriages remained relatively high in the early period, with approximately 2.5 million recorded in both 1970 and 1980. This figure subsequently witnessed a decline, dropping to 2.3 million by 1990 and further to 2 million by 2000. Concurrently, the number of divorces, initially one million in 1970, rose to a peak of 1.4 million a decade later before reducing slightly to 1.2 million in 1990 and then returning to one million by 2000. Throughout the entire period, the volume of marriages consistently outnumbered that of divorces by a substantial margin. Turning to the second chart, the proportion of married adults, which stood at almost 70% in 1970, saw a considerable reduction to just under 60% by 2000. This decline was paralleled by a notable rise in the percentage of individuals who had never married, increasing from roughly 15% to 22%. Furthermore, the share of divorced adults experienced a significant surge, climbing from a mere 2% in 1970 to 10% in 2000. Conversely, the percentage of widowed individuals declined slightly from around 8% to 5% over the same three decades.
Key Vocabulary