The South is officially the most unstable place in America for marriage, according to  recent Census report released Aug. 25.

The report shows that states with the highest divorce rates in the nation are grouped in the South, including Louisiana. The information consists of the number of marital events – either marriages or divorces – that occurred for every 1,000 people.

The report, compiled using Census data from 2009, shows Louisiana with divorce rates of 11.0 and 10.0 per 1,000 men and women, respectively. The national averages are 9.2 divorces per 1,000 men and 9.7 per 1,000 women.

LSU sociology professor Laurie Chancey said the high divorce rates in the South could be linked to high poverty rates.

“Economic stress is one of the biggest reasons people get divorced,” Chancey said.

Without a stable job or income, she warned, it’s “not a very solid foundation to get married in college.”

“The longer you wait, the better off you are,” she said.

Without a hint of regret, LSU senior Casey Thomas willingly admitted, “College life and married life do not mesh well.”

But Thomas, who married two years ago at age 18, believes the statistics “desensitize the whole situation.”

Marriage advice, she says, should be taken with a grain of salt.

“Base your decision on what type of person you are,” she said.

Thomas and her husband balance jobs and college with a dependence on student loans, making the difficulties of college marriage apparent.

Chancey also pointed out that couples who live together before marriage are more likely to get divorced in the future, but not for reasons typically heard in grade school.

Cohabitation displays “non-traditionalism,” Chancey said, which is a sign the people involved are more likely to get a divorce for personal happiness.

The root of the problem seems to lie with age. While it appears that couples tend to get married younger in the South, Chancey stressed that it takes around 18 months to two years for the hormonal “infatuation” between young lovers to wear off, leading some couples to make hasty decisions before they’ve grown comfortable.

The younger you marry, the more likely you are to get a divorce, she warned.

The best advice Chancey could give is to wait.

“You’re still becoming who you are when you’re in college,” she said.

Thomas sees marriage as a relative matter.

“If you love the person you’re with, you hope they grow,” she said.

The disparity of divorce rates for men in Louisiana versus women should be blamed on the different repercussions, according to Chancey.

It is typically the women who retain custody of the children, she said, making dating more difficult.

“Women end up far more disadvantaged after a divorce,” Chancey said.

Religious traditionalism is often a common denominator when speculating about the concentration of divorces in the Bible Belt.

Camille Dillon, agricultural business senior, blames the high divorce rates on “people getting married very young,” which she believes is traditional for typical Southern families.

“It’s not that surprising to me,” she said.

Dillon figured around 50 percent of her friends have divorced parents, herself included.

Hilary Watson, nutritional sciences freshman, also attributed the high Southern divorce rates with religious affiliation.

“Maybe religion has a lot to do with it,” she speculated, adding that Roman Catholics often feel the need for large families, which can cause stress and strain a relationship.

Watson believes people should wait to get married, and said the divorce rate is so high in the South “because [married] people are so young.”

“I don’t believe in getting married at 18 to 19 years old,” she said.

Watson’s theory on Catholic family strains resonates with Chancey’s comment that pregnancy is the most common reason for marriage.

The decision whether to have children or not, she said, should be among the first a couple asks when deciding to get married.

Chancey also said people who get engaged after six months or so tend to be religious, especially if they had chosen to remain sexually abstinent until marriage.

That directly reflects a Pew Research Center study on the Millennial Generation released in February 2010. The Millennial Generation includes the men and women born from the 1970s through the early to middle 1990s.

The study describes the Millennials to be “confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change,” aligning the generation with the non-traditional lifestyle Chancey described as akin to divorce for “personal happiness.”

The study says Millennials see a successful marriage to be of lower priority compared to Generation X, the preceding generation. However, Millennials value being a good parent more than Generation X despite the outcome of their marriages.

The Census report also identified the Northeast as the most stable place for marriage in the country.

States such as Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and Connecticut were rated with fewer marriages, fewer divorces and fewer children affected by divorces than in the South, all giving credence to Chancey’s postulation.