Something Extra: Divorce Dilemma

MIAMI (CBS4) - Love and marriage... and divorce.

Some recent studies aren't painting a pretty picture of divorce in the U.S. and around the world.

The U.S. has the fifth-highest divorce rate in the world, according to UN statistics.

Worldwide, Russia is worst with about two thirds of marriages ending in divorce, followed closely by many of the former Soviet Republics, Cuba and Eastern European countries... a peculiar legacy of communism there.

In the U.S., the CDC tells us more people get divorced in the South than the Northeast, and that you are less likely to get divorced if you are wealthier, more educated, marry when you're older and have parents who are happily married.

African Americans divorce more often than whites and Hispanics, who have roughly comparable divorce rates.

And second and third marriages end in divorce more often than first marriages.

Ironically, a Marquette University study released this month confirmed the recession brought some good news.  The American divorce rate fell sharply, more than in prior recessions.  We'll have to see what happens when the economy recovers.