Which national statistical offices publish marriage-duration distributions that include 50+ year marriages?
Executive summary
National statistical offices that explicitly publish marriage-duration distributions reaching 50+ years are documented for at least the United States (via U.S. Census Bureau products that draw on the American Community Survey and vital statistics) and for England and Wales (via the Office for National Statistics as cited by international compilations), while the United Nations Population Division compiles metadata showing many country NSOs supply marriage-duration tables but does not itself list which national offices include a 50+ category in every case [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6].
1. U.S. federal statistics: explicit 50+ marriage-duration reporting
U.S. national reports provide marriage-duration distributions that include long marriages reaching and exceeding 50 years: the Census Bureau’s “Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces” series and related newsroom releases use data sources (including the American Community Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation) that report shares of marriages at milestones such as 25 and 50 years, with past releases explicitly noting percentages that have passed the golden (50th) anniversary [1] [2] [7]. Research briefs and family profiles produced using ACS and vital statistics further quantify the prevalence of 50+ year marriages — for example, NCFMR analyses report roughly 7.7–8% of current U.S. marriages reaching 50 years in recent ACS-based estimates and show tabulations of older cohorts in 50+ marriage categories [3] [4].
2. England & Wales (and international compilations pointing to national offices)
International data compilers cite the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for marriage data in England and Wales, and Our World in Data’s marriage-and-divorce page references ONS outputs when constructing international time series, indicating the ONS produces marriage statistics that feed into marriage-duration and historical distributions [5]. The UN’s World Marriage Data metadata explains that the Population Division and Statistics Division assemble marriage distributions from national statistical offices or official census publications, implying that many NSOs provide duration distributions to international repositories even if the UN document does not enumerate which offices include a 50+ duration class on each national table [6].
3. Vital-statistics agencies and survey-derived tabulations: broader evidence and limits
Vital-statistics systems and demographic surveys are common sources for marriage-duration distributions: the U.S. National Vital Statistics System and CDC/NCHS maintain marriage and divorce statistics and feed the national picture used by Census and research centers [8] [9]. However, while these institutional pathways exist globally, the available reporting in this collection of sources does not produce a comprehensive list of every national statistical office that explicitly publishes a “50+ years married” category; the UN metadata confirms adjusted or disaggregated measures are used only when reported by national offices, but it does not substitute for a country-by-country roster [6] [10].
4. Balance, implications and what remains unverifiable from these sources
The evidence from U.S. federal publications and ACS-derived research briefs is clear: U.S. national statistics explicitly tabulate marriage-duration distributions including 50+ year marriages and quantify their prevalence [1] [3] [4]; international compilers such as Our World in Data rely on national offices like the ONS for analogous data for England and Wales, showing the practice exists beyond the U.S. [5]. At the same time, the UN’s metadata shows that many National Statistical Offices are sources for global marriage-duration compilations but does not permit confidently naming every NSO that publishes a discrete 50+ category, so a comprehensive global list cannot be produced from the supplied documents alone [6] [10]. Researchers seeking a complete roster must consult country NSO publications or the UN’s full country-by-country tables where available, because the current sources establish that such reporting exists in several well-documented cases but stop short of a definitive global catalogue [6] [5] [2].