In this month’s issue of Worth, we’ve bucked the trend. Our cover package on divorce and the most pressing trends in matrimonial law might seem to strike a chord with most Americans. One might even argue that we’re playing to the lowest common denominator among our readership, preying on their fears of future marital strife.

Whereas, in reality, I’m not sure that this cover package won’t be lost on a large portion of our audience. Because, despite popular opinion, a large portion of Americans simply don’t get divorced. Conventional wisdom and innumerable cocktail party conversations suggest that half of all marriages end in divorce. But there does not seem to be any hard evidence to support this axiom.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the United States had a divorce rate of 3.6 per 1,000 people, or a per capita rate of .36 percent, in 2005. Of course, this represents a time-stamped slice of divorce rates for the given year. So of the 1,000 relatives and friends in your address book in 2005, roughly 3.6 of them got divorced that year. Hardly a pandemic. The myth of the 50 percent divorce admonition may stem from the fact that in many years, the per capita divorce rate seems to be roughly half of the per capita marriage rate. In 2005, for example, the marriage rate was 7.5 per 1,000 people. Thus, for every divorce in 2005, there were slightly more than two marriages. For the mathematically challenged, this implies that nearly half of all marriages end in divorce. For the rest of us, however . . . .

Also keep in mind that national divorce statistics exclude data from several large states, including California, so gaining an accurate picture of divorce statistics may be a fool’s errand entirely. But that still doesn’t stop the hue and cry from—whom?—family values proponents, marriage counselors, social conservatives and the mainstream media that we continue to face a divorce deluge. In fact, current per capita divorce rates are at their lowest ebb since 1970, and have fallen by one-third since 1981. Certainly some of this improvement can be attributed to statistics showing that fewer people are marrying, thus decreasing the pool of potential divorcés.

As one might expect, divorce rates are falling further among the affluent and educated. Money, for all its challenges, does seem to have some sort of comforting effect in marriages. Obviously, financial woes can wreak havoc on a relationship. And, interestingly enough, couples in which both spouses have gone to college seem to benefit from more stable relationships, primarily for two reasons: As more women earn college degrees, they tend to work outside the home, which seems to solidify marriages; and, somewhere along the line, these better-educated women seem to be acquiring important negotiating skills that they use with their spouses.

Of course, this Pollyanna family planning means little if you or one of your loved ones directly encounter divorce. According to the family law attorneys we interviewed in our divorce roundtable, which starts on page 49, divorce among the affluent is becoming, if not more common, more expensive and more acrimonious. Imagine your spouse planting software on your family computer to track every keystroke you make. It happens. While divorcing couples are sorely tempted to take out their frustrations on each other, our experts suggest that only by keeping a clear head about you can you succeed during this trying period. We even found a financial advisor who, reluctantly, helped one divorcing couple draft an agreement to share ownership of their business.

While the inevitableness of divorce appears less likely than you might think, we trust that our cover package proves useful—just in case.