Utah Divorce Statistics (2026 Update)

Utah recorded 9,868 divorces in 2025, or 2.8 per 1,000 residents (provisional, Utah DHHS), down from 10,469 (3.0) in 2024. In 2023 the rate was 3.1 against a U.S. rate of 2.4 (final as published). Per 1,000 married women, Utah’s refined rate was 13.7 in 2024, below the U.S. figure of 14.2 (final). Utah district courts received 12,662 divorce and annulment filings in FY2023 (final).

Key numbers

Source: Utah DHHS Quick Stats; NCFMR FP-25-31 (2025); CDC/NCHS Divorce Rates by State (provisional 2023); Utah State Courts FY2023 Case Type by Court, each linked in Methodology and sources; compiled September 24, 2026 (https://vitalrecords.utah.gov/quick-stats). Status: as labeled by row.

How many divorces happen in Utah each year?

Utah recorded 9,868 divorces in 2025 (provisional), 10,469 in 2024 and 10,617 in 2023. Since 2017 the count has ranged from 9,868 (2025) to 11,892 (2018), while the crude rate fell from 3.7 per 1,000 residents in 2018 to 2.8 in 2025, above the U.S. rate in every year with both published.

Source: Utah DHHS Office of Vital Records and Statistics, Quick Stats Tables 1 and 2 (Utah residents), 2026 Issue 2, accessed September 28, 2026 (the 2017 row was read from the 2026 Q1 version on September 24, 2026; Issue 2 starts at 2018) (https://vitalrecords.utah.gov/quick-stats). Status: 2024 and 2025 provisional; other years final as published.

DHHS obtains divorce data from the Utah State Courts and revises provisional data. DHHS added a provisional 2025 figure in Quick Stats 2026 Issue 2 (September 2026): 9,868 divorces, 2.8 per 1,000 residents. For 2010 to 2016 DHHS publishes rates only, in its IBIS-PH indicator, whose 2017 to 2023 values match Quick Stats exactly.

Source: Utah DHHS, IBIS-PH indicator MarDiv, “Marriage and divorce rates, Utah and U.S., 2010-2023”, updated October 3, 2024 (https://ibis.utah.gov/ibisph-view/indicator/view_numbers/MarDiv.UT_US.html). Status: final as published.

Is Utah’s divorce rate high or low?

It depends on the measure. Per 1,000 residents (crude rate), Utah is above the U.S. average: 3.1 versus 2.4 in 2023, 5th highest of the 46 jurisdictions reporting to the CDC (provisional; 45 states plus D.C.). Per 1,000 married women (refined rate), Utah is below the U.S. average: 13.7 versus 14.2 in 2024, 34th of 51 from the top, or 18th lowest.

Source: Utah DHHS Quick Stats; CDC/NCHS state divorce rates and FastStats; NCFMR FP-25-31 (2025) (https://www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resources/data/family-profiles/fp-25-31.html). Status: as labeled by row.

In plain English: the crude rate divides divorces by everyone, including children and people who never married; the refined rate divides by the people who could actually divorce. Because a larger share of Utahns are married (54.9% of people 15 and over in 2023, Gardner), Utah produces more divorces per resident than the nation even though a married woman in Utah is slightly less likely to divorce in a given year. Both statements are true at once. The Gardner Policy Institute puts Utah’s refined rate at 21.6 in 2010 and 13.3 in 2023 (U.S. 14.4), consistent with NCFMR’s 13.7 for 2024.

Utah vs neighboring states and the U.S.

On the CDC 2023 crude rate (provisional), Utah (3.1) sat below Nevada (3.8), Idaho (3.4) and Wyoming (3.4) and above Colorado (2.8) and Arizona (2.0). On the 2024 refined rate Utah (13.7) was below Nevada (19.9) and Wyoming (18.7) but above Idaho (11.2).

Source: CDC/NCHS, Divorce Rates by State: 1990, 1995, and 2000-2023 (provisional counts by state of occurrence) and National Marriage and Divorce Rate Trends 2000-2023; NCFMR FP-25-31 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/marriage-divorce/state-divorce-rates-90-95-00-23.pdf). Status: CDC rates provisional, ranks computed by us; NCFMR rates final.

Five states did not report 2023 counts to the CDC (California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico), so the crude ranking covers 45 states plus the District of Columbia, ties sharing the higher rank; the U.S. rate of 2.4 rests on 672,502 divorces and annulments in those jurisdictions. Nevada (3.8), Idaho and Wyoming (3.4) and Oklahoma (3.3) ranked above Utah and Alaska. On the refined measure Oklahoma was highest in 2024 (20.7) and Maine lowest (10.0); Arizona and Colorado values appear only inside a chart graphic and could not be read consistently, so they are not reproduced. On the CDC series (provisional), Utah’s crude rate was 5.1 in 1990 and 4.3 in 2000 and has been 3.9 or lower every year since 2006.

Latest provisional monthly divorces in Utah (2026)

DHHS reported 870 divorces in January 2026, 822 in February and 853 in March, a first-quarter total of 2,545 (provisional, Utah occurrences). These were the most recent monthly figures readable as text when checked.

Source: Utah DHHS Quick Stats, Figure 1, “Total number of births, deaths, infant deaths, fetal deaths, marriages, and divorces: Utah occurrences, 2026 Q1” (https://vitalrecords.utah.gov/quick-stats). Status: provisional.

As-of note: these months were read on September 24, 2026, when the page was labeled “2026 Q1”. On September 28, 2026 DHHS replaced it with 2026 Issue 2, whose monthly chart is an image; newer months will be added once transcribed and checked. Figure 1 counts events occurring in Utah; the annual tables count Utah residents. Monthly figures for 2025 (Quick Stats 2025 Issues 1 to 4) exist only as images inside archived PDFs and could not be read reliably; they will be added once transcribed and checked. Three provisional months are not multiplied into an annual estimate here.

Divorce filings in Utah district courts by fiscal year, FY2010 to FY2023

Utah district courts received 12,662 Divorce/Annulment filings in fiscal year 2023 and disposed of 12,578 cases, a clearance rate of 99%. Readable years range from 12,662 (FY2023) to 14,035 (FY2011). A court fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30, so FY2023 is July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.

Source: Utah State Courts, “Utah District Courts: FY2010 to FY2023 Case Type by Court, Statewide Total”, annual PDFs at https://www.utcourts.gov/content/dam/stats/files/{YYYY}fy/district/0-Statewide.pdf (https://www.utcourts.gov/content/dam/stats/files/2023fy/district/0-Statewide.pdf). Status: final; FY2022 not readable (image-only PDF). The FY2010 report prints a 101% clearance rate, although 13,567 dispositions divided by 13,651 filings computes to 99%; the printed value is shown.

Two gaps: the FY2022 statewide report is an image-only PDF whose values could not be read, and FY2024 to FY2026 per-court PDFs have not been published. The courts link an Excel workbook of FY2010 to FY2026 filing counts from their court statistics page, but whether it breaks out Divorce/Annulment cases could not be confirmed, so no FY2024 or later figure appears here.

Filings are not divorces. The courts count every Divorce/Annulment case opened, including annulments and cases later dismissed; DHHS counts decrees for Utah residents by calendar year. That is why the courts show 12,662 filings in FY2023 while DHHS shows 10,617 divorces in 2023. For what happens between filing and decree, see what the divorce process looks like in Utah.

Divorce filings by county and judicial district, FY2023, per 1,000 residents

Salt Lake County courts received 4,624 Divorce/Annulment filings in FY2023, Utah County 2,236, Davis 1,361 and Weber 1,135. Per 1,000 residents, the highest rates among counties with at least 20 filings were Emery (5.58), Uintah (5.15) and Garfield (5.06); the lowest were San Juan (2.01), Morgan (2.68) and Utah (3.07). Statewide: 3.66.

Formula: filings per 1,000 residents = FY2023 Divorce/Annulment filings / county population on July 1, 2023 (Utah Population Committee, December 2023 vintage) x 1,000. Weber County: 1,135 / 269,816 x 1,000 = 4.21. Filings are counted at the court of filing, not where the parties live.

Source: Utah State Courts, FY2023 Case Type by Court, per-county and per-location PDFs; population from Harris, Emily, State and County Population Estimates for Utah: 2023, Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, December 2023, https://d36oiwf74r1rap.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/UPC-Estimates-Dec2023.pdf (https://www.utcourts.gov/content/dam/stats/files/2023fy/district/). Status: filings and dispositions final; rates computed by us.

* Rich (8), Piute (7), Wayne (10), Daggett (3) had fewer than 20 filings, so a handful of cases moves their rates by a full point; they are shown but not ranked. ** No single county report exists; the row sums the court-location files (Salt Lake City plus West Jordan; Provo plus American Fork plus Spanish Fork). Every county reconciles exactly to its district summary and to the statewide 12,662; the statewide population is the same estimate’s printed total.

By judicial district, FY2023 Divorce/Annulment filings were: District 1 (Box Elder, Cache, Rich) 700; District 2 (Davis, Morgan, Weber) 2,531; District 3 (Salt Lake, Summit, Tooele) 5,151; District 4 (Juab, Millard, Utah, Wasatch) 2,459; District 5 (Beaver, Iron, Washington) 1,034; District 6 (Garfield, Kane, Piute, Sanpete, Sevier, Wayne) 289; District 7 (Carbon, Emery, Grand, San Juan) 207; District 8 (Daggett, Duchesne, Uintah) 291 (district summary PDFs, 1-Summary.pdf to 8-Summary.pdf, in the same directory).

Other family-law filings in Utah district courts by fiscal year

In FY2023 the courts also received 4,896 protective order filings, 1,236 custody and support filings, 627 paternity filings, 98 temporary separation filings and 12 separate maintenance filings, within a domestic category total of 19,864.

Source: Utah State Courts, FY2010 to FY2023 Case Type by Court, Statewide Total (filings) (https://www.utcourts.gov/content/dam/stats/files/2023fy/district/0-Statewide.pdf). Status: final; FY2022 not readable.

* Labeled “Cohabitant Abuse” in the FY2010 to FY2012 reports. The domestic total also includes smaller case types such as interstate custody and support cases; the FY2010 report prints 21,019 filings and 20,924 dispositions, but its component rows sum to 20,924 filings, so the component sum is shown (the Divorce/Annulment row is unaffected). Custody and child support are also decided inside divorce cases, so these columns understate them; see how Utah courts approach custody and child support.

What percentage of adults are divorced in each Utah county?

Over 2020 to 2024, the share of people 15 and over who were currently divorced ranged from 5.0% in Morgan County (+/- 1.7) to 19.3% in Grand County (+/- 4.2). Weber was 11.4%, Salt Lake 10.3%, Davis 8.3% and Utah County 5.5%; statewide, 8.5% in 2024 (ACS 1-year). This is a stock, not a rate: the share whose current status is divorced (people who remarried count as married), not divorces in a year. Margins of error are at the 90 percent level and wide for small counties.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-Year Estimates, Table B12001, Utah counties (released January 2026), via data.census.gov, September 24, 2026 (https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B12001?g=040XX00US49$0500000). Status: estimates final; percent and margin computed by us as (male divorced + female divorced) / population 15 and over, margins combined by the Census Bureau’s standard formulas.

The percent is computed from the published male and female counts rather than copied from subject table S1201, so it should match that table within rounding. Divorces in the past 12 months per 1,000 married people by county (table B12503) could not be retrieved for this update and are not shown.

Who divorces in Utah?

In 2024 an estimated 10,391 Utah women and 8,334 Utah men aged 15 and over reported divorcing in the previous 12 months, 18,725 people (ACS 2024 1-year, margins of error near 1,900 each). Women are more likely than men to be currently divorced: 132,566 women (9.7% of women 15 and over) versus 102,017 men (7.3%). Utahns also marry younger: median age at first marriage in 2024 was 27.2 for men (+/- 0.6) and 25.2 for women (+/- 0.3), against 30.8 and 28.8 nationally (table B12007).

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 1-Year Estimates, Tables B12503, B12001 and B12007 (released September 2025), via data.census.gov, September 24, 2026 (https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2024.B12503?g=0400000US49). Status: final.

Refined rate for women, computed: 10,391 / (747,126 + 10,391) x 1,000 = 13.7, reproducing the NCFMR figure (U.S.: 986,810 / (68,582,710 + 986,810) x 1,000 = 14.2). Share currently divorced: (102,017 + 132,566) / 2,750,110 = 8.5%. The Gardner Policy Institute reported about 20,600 Utahns divorcing in 2023; the 2024 figure of 18,725 is within sampling error of it, not a decline. Breakdowns of recent divorces by age, education and presence of children (ACS table S1251) could not be retrieved and are not approximated.

Marriage context: marriages and marriage rates in Utah

Utah recorded 54,499 marriages in 2025 (provisional), 15.3 per 1,000 residents, up from 46,973 (13.4) in 2024 and 25,834 (8.0) in 2019. Recent counts are inflated by online, remote-ceremony marriages licensed through Utah County, so they overstate how often Utah couples marry. This page therefore computes no marriage-to-divorce ratio.

Source: Utah DHHS Quick Stats, Tables 1 and 2 (https://vitalrecords.utah.gov/quick-stats). Status: 2024 and 2025 provisional; other years final as published.

Why Utah divorce numbers differ online

Most conflicting figures come from provisional versus final data, different definitions (crude versus refined, filings versus decrees), different agencies (CDC versus Utah DHHS) and fiscal versus calendar years.

Source: as listed in each row; every figure appears above with its link (https://vitalrecords.utah.gov/quick-stats). Status: as labeled.

CDC versus Utah DHHS. The CDC computes state rates from provisional counts by state of occurrence with Census Bureau denominators; DHHS uses decrees for Utah residents with Utah Population Committee denominators and revises later. They agree for 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2023 and differ by 0.1 to 0.5 in other years; the widest gaps are 2012 and 2013 (DHHS 3.8 and 3.6, CDC 3.3 and 3.1). This page uses DHHS for Utah’s trend and CDC only to compare states.

Fiscal versus calendar year, provisional versus final. Court statistics run July 1 to June 30 and vital statistics on the calendar year, so figures with the same year label cover different months. DHHS labels its newest year provisional and revises it; the CDC labels all state rates provisional. Every provisional figure here is labeled and is replaced when the final value appears.

Methodology and sources

Every number on this page was read from the primary source below on September 24, 2026, or is arithmetic on those numbers with the formula shown beside it; nothing is estimated or extrapolated. Crude rate: divorces per 1,000 residents in a calendar year. Refined rate: divorces in the past 12 months per 1,000 married women 15 and over (ACS). Percent divorced: share of people 15 and over whose current status is divorced. Filings: Divorce/Annulment cases opened in district courts in a fiscal year, at the court of filing. Margin of error: the ACS 90 percent interval.

1. Utah DHHS, Office of Vital Records and Statistics. Utah Vital Records Quick Stats, Tables 1 and 2 and Figure 1; 2026 Issue 2, accessed September 28, 2026 (monthly 2026 counts and the 2017 row read from the 2026 Q1 version on September 24, 2026). https://vitalrecords.utah.gov/quick-stats. Annual counts and rates 2017 to 2025; monthly 2026 counts.
2. Utah DHHS, IBIS-PH. Marriage and divorce rates, Utah and U.S., 2010-2023 (MarDiv), updated October 3, 2024. https://ibis.utah.gov/ibisph-view/indicator/view_numbers/MarDiv.UT_US.html. Rates 2010 to 2016; DHHS versus CDC comparison.
3. CDC/NCHS. Divorce Rates by State: 1990, 1995, and 2000-2023 (provisional), page last reviewed March 7, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/marriage-divorce/state-divorce-rates-90-95-00-23.pdf. State comparison and 2023 ranking.
4. CDC/NCHS. National Marriage and Divorce Rate Trends for 2000-2023 and FastStats (March 17, 2025). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/marriage-divorce/national-marriage-divorce-rates-00-23.pdf; https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/marriage-divorce.htm. U.S. counts and rates.
5. Westrick-Payne, K. K. (2025). Refined divorce rate in the U.S.: Geographic variation, 2024, FP-25-31, National Center for Family and Marriage Research, Bowling Green State University. https://www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resources/data/family-profiles/fp-25-31.html. 2024 refined rates and ranks.
6. Prior, Heidi (April 2025). Utah’s Marriage Trends: Young, Married, and Changing, Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. https://d36oiwf74r1rap.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Marriage-Trends-Apr2025.pdf. 2010 and 2023 refined rates, percent married, 2023 divorce count.
7. Utah State Courts. Utah District Courts: FY2010 to FY2023 Case Type by Court (statewide, district, county and location reports). https://www.utcourts.gov/content/dam/stats/files/2023fy/district/0-Statewide.pdf; https://www.utcourts.gov/content/dam/stats/files/2023fy/district/; https://www.utcourts.gov/en/court-records-publications/publications/court-statistics.html. All filing and disposition figures.
8. U.S. Census Bureau. ACS 2020-2024 5-Year Estimates, Table B12001, Utah counties (January 2026). https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2024.B12001?g=040XX00US49$0500000. Percent divorced by county.
9. U.S. Census Bureau. ACS 2024 1-Year Estimates, Tables B12503, B12001 and B12007 (September 2025). https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT1Y2024.B12503?g=0400000US49. Who divorces in Utah; age at first marriage.
10. Harris, Emily. State and County Population Estimates for Utah: 2023 (December 2023) and 2025 (December 2025), Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. https://d36oiwf74r1rap.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/UPC-Estimates-Dec2023.pdf; https://d36oiwf74r1rap.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/UPC-Estimates-Dec2025.pdf. County denominators.
11. Utah State Legislature. Utah Code 81-4-402, Chapter 366, 2024 General Session, effective September 1, 2024. https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title81/Chapter4/81-4-S402.html; PDF https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title81/Chapter4/C81-4-S402_2024090120240501.pdf. Quotations in the closing section.

Update cadence: quarterly when a new Quick Stats issue posts; each August or September for court fiscal-year filings and the NCFMR refined rate; each winter for the CDC state table and ACS 5-year county tables.

Changelog

• September 28, 2026: page published with DHHS counts and rates 2017 to 2025 (2024 and 2025 provisional), IBIS rates 2010 to 2016, monthly provisional counts for January to March 2026, CDC state rates 1990 to 2023, NCFMR refined rates 2024, court filings FY2010 to FY2023 (FY2022 unavailable) with FY2023 county detail, and ACS 2020 to 2024 county and 2024 state figures.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many divorces were there in Utah in 2025?

Utah recorded 9,868 divorces in 2025 according to provisional figures from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, down from 10,469 in 2024 and 10,617 in 2023. The 2025 figure is subject to revision.

What is Utah’s divorce rate?

Utah’s crude divorce rate was 2.8 divorces per 1,000 residents in 2025 (provisional), 3.0 in 2024 and 3.1 in 2023. Per 1,000 married women, the refined rate was 13.7 in 2024.

Is Utah’s divorce rate higher or lower than the national average?

Both, depending on the measure. Per 1,000 residents Utah was higher than the U.S. in 2023 (3.1 versus 2.4), but per 1,000 married women Utah was lower in 2024 (13.7 versus 14.2), because a larger share of Utah’s population is married.

Which Utah county has the highest divorce filing rate?

Among counties with at least 20 filings, Emery County had the highest FY2023 rate at 5.58 Divorce/Annulment filings per 1,000 residents, followed by Uintah (5.15) and Garfield (5.06). San Juan County was lowest at 2.01; the statewide figure was 3.66.

What percentage of Utah adults are divorced?

In 2024, 8.5% of Utahns aged 15 and over were currently divorced (234,583 people), according to the American Community Survey. By county over 2020 to 2024 the share ranged from 5.0% in Morgan County to 19.3% in Grand County.

What is the average length of a marriage before divorce in Utah?

No current official Utah figure is published. Neither the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, the Utah State Courts nor the Census Bureau publishes the duration of marriages that ended in divorce in Utah, and figures found online for it are unsourced or measure something else.

Has Utah’s divorce rate gone down?

Yes. The crude rate fell from 4.1 per 1,000 residents in 2010 to 2.8 in 2025 (provisional, Utah DHHS), and the refined rate fell from 21.6 per 1,000 married women in 2010 to 13.3 in 2023 (Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute), while the annual number of divorces has ranged from 9,868 to 11,892 since 2017.

How long does a divorce take in Utah?

No agency publishes an average time from filing to decree in Utah. Utah Code 81-4-402(3)(a) provides that the court may not enter a decree of divorce until 30 days after the day on which the petition is filed, unless the court finds that extraordinary circumstances exist.

What this means if you are considering divorce in Utah

The statistics describe the state, not any one marriage. Two provisions of current Utah law bear on where and when a divorce can be filed and finalized, quoted from Utah Code 81-4-402 (effective September 1, 2024). On where to file, subsection (1)(a), one of the bases the statute lists, provides that an individual may bring a petition for divorce if “the individual or the individual’s spouse is an actual and bona fide resident of the county where the petition is filed for at least 90 days before the day on which the petition is filed”. On timing, subsection (3)(a) provides: “The court may not enter a decree of divorce until 30 days after the day on which the petition is filed, unless the court finds that extraordinary circumstances exist.” How those provisions apply to a particular household depends on its facts, including questions of alimony, custody and support.