Do Divorce rate (UN) and Environment score go together across countries?

Across 93 countries the link before adjusting for anything is r = -0.23, on a scale from -1 (opposite) to +1 (in step). A version that uses only each country's rank gives -0.26.

Does the link hold within countries over time, not just across countries?

There are not enough years of data within countries to check this over time.

Does Divorce rate (UN) cause Environment score?

This analysis cannot answer that. It shows only that the two go together. A link between two country measures, adjusted or not, does not show that either one changes the other. Country figures also say nothing about individual people.

Divorce rate (UN) vs. Environment score

Holds up after adjusting for income

Across 93 countries, Divorce rate (UN) and Environment score rise and fall together at r = -0.23 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). It holds up almost unchanged when only countries with similar income (GDP per person) are compared (r = -0.23, q = 0.050, allowing for the many pairs tested).

Comparing countries across the middle half of divorce rate (un), 1.33 to 2.02 divorces per 1,000 people, environment score is worse by 0.102 typical gaps at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 0.102 typical gaps.

Link before adjusting (r)-0.234p = 0.024 · 93 countries

After adjusting for national income-0.235p = 0.024 · likely range [-0.42, -0.03]

p, allowing for regions0.005standard error 0.049 · 6 regions

Check for luck (q)0.050across 12,497 pairs

How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.

Divorce rate (UN) · divorces per 1,000 peoplelink with income +0.07 · independent

Environment score · typical gaps (standard deviations)link with income -0.33 · moderate

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

Method	r	p	Countries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted	-0.234	0.024	93
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted	-0.262	0.011	93
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income	-0.235	0.024	93
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income	-0.264	0.011	93

The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 93 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: -0.000 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from -0.264 (without QAT) to -0.196 (without RUS). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: RUS (+0.039).

Within each region

Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.

	n	r
Europe & Central Asia	50	-0.37
Latin America & Caribbean	21	-0.23

By income third

If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.

	n	r
Poorest third	31	-0.14
Middle third	31	-0.50
Richest third	31	-0.01

By largest religious group

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

	n	r
Christians	58	-0.38
Muslims	17	+0.06

By last european coloniser

	n	r
Never a European colony	12	-0.06
United Kingdom	22	-0.19

Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = -0.179 after dropping 6 countries.

Two series, one country

Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.

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Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 0years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

Not enough history inside each country to look at this over time. That needs countries measured for several years in a row, and at least one of these measures is measured too rarely.

The data

	divorces per 1,000 people	typical gaps (standard deviations)	Years
Russian Federation RUS	4.65	-0.804	2013, 2024
Moldova MDA	3.92	-0.459	2024
Belarus BLR	3.81	-0.676	2024
Georgia GEO	3.66	-0.0275	2024
Aruba ABW	3.49	-0.24	2023, 2024
Ukraine UKR	2.93	-0.231	2021, 2024
Latvia LVA	2.85	-0.203	2024
Mauritius MUS	2.51	-0.72	2024
Egypt, Arab Rep. EGY	2.5	-0.316	2022, 2024
Costa Rica CRI	2.48	0.306	2024
Andorra AND	2.48	0.397	2024, 2023
Lithuania LTU	2.47	-0.281	2024
Dominican Republic DOM	2.43	0.145	2024
Iran, Islamic Rep. IRN	2.41	-0.811	2022, 2024
Greenland GRL	2.39	0.449	2023, 2024

United Nations Statistics Division, Demographic Yearbook, 2017 to 2024 editions: tables of marriages and crude marriage rates, and of divorces and crude divorce rates, by urban/rural residence.
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Sources

Divorce rate (UN)

Crude divorce rate, countries with complete registration

United Nations Statistics Division · UNdata terms of use · updated annual (each edition covers the latest five years)

Divorces granted in the year per 1,000 people, from the same UN Demographic Yearbook collection and with the same rule: only countries whose register the UN rates as at least 90% complete. It is a crude rate, counted against everyone, not just married people. So a country where few people marry can have few divorces without its marriages lasting any longer. Countries where divorce is rare by law or custom and countries where it is simply not recorded can look alike. The United States is left out: its divorce counts miss six states, but the rate is worked out over the whole population. No "better" direction is set.

Environment score

PlaceStats · via PlaceStats · Derived work; each member keeps its own licence · updated recomputed with the panel

The average of 3 measures from 1 publisher. Each measure is first put on a common scale: 0 is the average country in an average year, and 1 is a typical gap between countries (a standard deviation). Each is turned so that higher is better. Measures are averaged within each publisher first, so a publisher with many measures does not count for more. Members: Forest area, CO2 per capita, Protected land.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2013–2024. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 6 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 12,497 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated DYB 2024. How the country data works · explore Divorce rate (UN) and Environment score

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Divorce rate (UN) changes Environment score, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.