So what do we see here? That women who married in the 2000s were least likely to divorce if they had no sex partners before marriage, at a rate of approximately 6 percent. That’s almost divorce-proof. Even just one sex partner before marriage moved up a woman’s chances of divorce within five years of marriage to one in five chances, at a 20 percent rate.

Even though there’s a small dip between two and ten sex partners before marriage, the divorce rate for every other premarital sex decision besides virginity is extremely high for just five years in, at all above 20 percent. The same is generally true even if you go back in time to the 1990s and 1980s. In other words, having any premarital sex partners is positively correlated with much higher divorce rates (on a magnitude of a more than 300 percent increase, in the 2000 data!).

Tragically for women’s chances at lifelong love, however, “the share of women who were virgins at marriage fell from 21% in the 1970s to 5% in the 2010s.” In other words, we can thank the death of chastity for contributing to our high divorce rates. Great going, sexual revolution! We all needed more heartbreak, loneliness, and lackluster sex!