Historically, unmarried adults, excluding widows, have been highly accepting of divorce, even if they themselves were not divorced. From 2015 to 2017, 76% of U.S. adults who have never been married say divorce is morally acceptable, consistent with previous time periods since 2001.

Those who are divorced or separated are no more likely than the “never marrieds” to say divorce is morally acceptable.

Over the past seven years, married individuals — once more reticent than others to say divorce is morally acceptable — have had a significant change of attitude on this topic. In 2015-2017, for the first time, married adults were about as likely as unmarried adults to say divorce is morally acceptable.