Colorado divorce statistics: the rate, the counties, the ages, the money

Colorado divorce statistics at a glance, 2026

The seventeen figures people ask for most, one row each, with the year and the public body that published it. Colorado columns are Colorado data; United States columns are national data where no Colorado figure is published.

25 Colorado divorce facts, one sentence each

Each fact stands on its own, with its year and publisher, so it can be quoted as is.

1. Colorado courts received 23,291 dissolution of marriage petitions in fiscal year 2024 (July 2023 to June 2024), up from 22,972 in FY2022 and 23,074 in FY2023 (Colorado Judicial Branch).
2. Colorado’s divorce rate was 2.8 per 1,000 residents in 2023, against 2.4 for the United States (CDC National Center for Health Statistics).
3. Colorado’s divorce rate has fallen by about half since 1990, when it was 5.5 per 1,000 residents; it was 4.7 in 2000 (CDC).
4. Colorado’s marriage rate was 9.0 per 1,000 residents in 2023, among the highest in the country, against 6.1 nationally (CDC).
5. Colorado records about three marriages for every divorce; the United States records about two and a half (computed from CDC rates).
6. 13 percent of Colorado women and 9 percent of Colorado men aged 15 and over are currently divorced (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey).
7. Dissolutions of marriage are 75 percent of all domestic relations cases filed in Colorado district courts (Colorado Judicial Branch, 2024).
8. 67 percent of the domestic relations cases filed in Colorado in fiscal year 2025 had no attorney on the case (Colorado Judicial Branch, July 2025).
9. El Paso County files the most divorces in Colorado (4,188 in FY2024), then Denver (2,813), Arapahoe (2,278), Adams (2,059) and Jefferson (1,884) (Colorado Judicial Branch).
10. Weld (1,476), Larimer (1,346) and Douglas (1,328) counties come next (Colorado Judicial Branch, FY2024).
11. The median age at first divorce in the United States is 43.1 for men and 40.7 for women (2022), up from 30.5 and 27.7 in 1970 (National Center for Family and Marriage Research).
12. The median marriage that ends in divorce lasted 12 years in 2023, up from 10 years in 2008 (Pew Research Center).
13. 16 percent of divorces come inside five years of marriage, 24 percent at five to nine years, and 22 percent after 25 or more years (Pew Research Center).
14. Nearly 40 percent of U.S. divorces now involve a spouse aged 50 or older (National Center for Family and Marriage Research).
15. The divorce rate for married women 50 and older rose from 3.9 per 1,000 in 1990 to 10.3 per 1,000 in 2023 (National Center for Health Statistics).
16. The median first marriage that ends in a gray divorce lasted 29 years (National Center for Family and Marriage Research).
17. 41 percent of recently divorced U.S. adults had a minor child living with them in 2022: 52 percent of women and 30 percent of men (National Center for Family and Marriage Research).
18. Women initiate about 69 percent of divorces and about two-thirds of gray divorces (Rosenfeld, American Sociological Association, 2015).
19. Divorced working-age adults report a median household income of $84,900, against $118,600 for married adults (Pew Research Center, American Community Survey 2023).
20. Median wealth is $98,700 for divorced adults against $326,900 for married adults (Pew Research Center, 2023).
21. About two-thirds of divorced Americans remarry: 68 percent of men and 64 percent of women (Pew Research Center).
22. One-third of ever-married Americans have divorced; 46 percent of those who married in the 1980s did (Pew Research Center).
23. Colorado requires 91 days of residency before filing and at least 91 days between service and the decree; most contested cases take longer. The Colorado process, step by step.
24. The Colorado petition filing fee is $260 (raised January 1, 2025) and can be waived for low income; the full cost of a case depends on whether it is contested. What a Colorado divorce costs.
25. Colorado is a no-fault, equitable-distribution state: the court divides marital property fairly, not automatically 50/50, under C.R.S. 14-10-113. Who gets the house.

Questions people ask about Colorado divorce statistics

The Colorado divorce rate, 2000 to 2023

Colorado against its neighbors and the country

Where Colorado divorces are filed: the county map

Dissolution of marriage petitions filed in each county’s district court in FY2024, 23,291 statewide. Circle size is the number of filings; tap a circle for the count.

Ages, marriage length and gray divorce

Who files, and what it costs

The house in a Colorado divorce

For most Colorado couples the house is the largest asset and the largest debt in the case. Metro Denver’s median single-family price is about $649,500 and the typical loan taken out in 2020 or 2021 carries a rate near 3 percent, which is why the buyout math and the refinance deadline decide more divorces than the law does. What happens to the house, the buyout math, selling during the case, and seven free guides.

Sources

• Colorado Judicial Branch, FY2024 Annual Statistical Report, Table 21, District Court Domestic Relations Filings by Case Type.
• CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Divorce rates by state, 1990, 1995, 2000-2023 and FastStats: marriage and divorce.
• Pew Research Center, 8 facts about divorce in the United States (October 2025), from NCHS and the American Community Survey.
• National Center for Family and Marriage Research, Bowling Green State University, Marriage duration at time of gray divorce and the median age at first divorce family profiles.
• Rosenfeld, M. J., Women more likely than men to initiate divorces, American Sociological Association, 2015.
• U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023 five-year estimates, county population and marital status.
• CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Marriage rates by state, 1990, 1995, 2000-2023.
• Colorado Judicial Branch, Cases and Parties without Attorney Representation in Civil Cases, FY2025 (July 2025).
• National Center for Family and Marriage Research, Recently divorced adults with resident minor children, 2022.
• U.S. Census Bureau, How does your state compare with national marriage and divorce trends? (October 2024) and American Community Survey marital status tables.
• Colorado Judicial Branch, court filing fees, in effect since January 1, 2025.

Figures are the latest published as of September 2026 and are rounded. Judicial filings count petitions, not final decrees. Nothing here is legal advice.