How do 50th anniversary rates vary by state or region in the US?

1. National prevalence: only a minority reach 50 years, but estimates differ

Demographic snapshots indicate that a relatively small share of married couples in the U.S. reach a 50th wedding anniversary—some reports cite roughly 6 percent, while other summaries report about 7–8 percent (described as “about 1 in 12”)—showing modest variation across studies and interpretations of Census and survey data ^{[1] [2]}. Those differences matter because one source frames longevity as “about 6 percent” ^[1] while another contextualizes it as approximately 8 percent or 1 in 12 couples ^[2], a gap that likely reflects different sample frames, years, or rounding rather than a sudden demographic shift.

2. No reliable state‑by‑state survival rates in the reporting provided

The assembled reporting does not include a validated breakdown of 50th‑anniversary incidence by state or region; the sources focus instead on wedding costs, vendor behavior, and national estimates of longevity ^{[3] [5] [4] [1] [2]}. Because of that absence, any claim that, for example, New Jersey has a higher or lower share of couples crossing the golden‑anniversary threshold would be speculative based on the supplied material; the reporting simply does not supply state‑level marital‑survival statistics ^{[3] [4]}.

3. Costs to mark a 50th anniversary track state patterns for weddings

While survival rates by state are missing, multiple industry trackers show that the price of large life‑event celebrations varies sharply by geography: The Knot’s state cost data, summarized by outlets such as CNBC and SoFi, places New Jersey among the most expensive locales and Alaska among the cheapest, and outlets routinely point to higher Northeast price tags versus more affordable regions ^{[3] [6] [4]}. Wedding‑cost surveys and vendor studies are the best available proxies for anniversary party costs because vendors, venues and catering rates that set wedding prices generally govern the economics of any comparable large celebration ^{[7] [8]}.

4. Vendor behavior and per‑guest costs complicate comparisons

Consumer Reports’ secret‑shopper work and industry reporting show vendors sometimes quote different prices for weddings versus anniversary parties—the so‑called “wedding markup” appeared in about 28 percent of tested cases—meaning that even in the same city the cost to mark a 50th anniversary can deviate from headline wedding averages ^[5]. Separately, estimates for per‑guest catering used by planners provide practical benchmarks (for example, industry notes put combined food and beverage around $80 per guest), but those averages are themselves shaped by regional living costs and local supply constraints ^[8].

5. What can reasonably be concluded and where more data is needed

Solid conclusions: nationally, only a single‑digit percentage of couples reach 50 years of marriage ^{[1] [2]}, and the cost to stage milestone celebrations follows the same geographic contours as wedding pricing—with the Northeast generally higher and states like Alaska showing lower averages according to The Knot and related summaries ^{[3] [6] [4]}. Missing from the supplied reporting is authoritative state‑level data on the proportion of marriages that survive to 50 years; answering that precisely would require Census or longitudinal marriage‑cohort tables disaggregated by state (not present in the provided sources). The reader should also weigh methodological caveats: average wedding costs (often reported) can be skewed by high‑end outliers and vendor markups differ by event type, so using wedding numbers as exact proxies for golden‑anniversary costs is useful but imperfect ^{[7] [5]}.