Alimony is far less common than most people assume. Spousal support is awarded in roughly 10 to 15 percent of U.S. divorces, a steep drop from the mid-20th century when ongoing payments were nearly automatic after a long marriage. The decline tracks with the rise of dual-income households, the spread of no-fault divorce, and a wave of state reforms that have narrowed both the availability and the length of awards.
So the short answer to how common alimony is: uncommon, and getting more so. The longer answer is that the average masks a sharp split. Younger couples where both spouses work rarely see any support ordered at all. Older couples ending decades-long marriages, particularly where one spouse spent years out of the workforce, still see meaningful awards.
Who Actually Receives Alimony Today
The recipient pool is smaller and older than the cultural image suggests. Census data from 2010 found that of roughly 400,000 people receiving spousal support nationwide, about 3 percent were men. That share has grown as more women became primary earners, but men remain a small fraction of recipients overall.
The bigger shift is age. Research published by the National Institutes of Health found that the share of divorcing Americans aged 50 and older jumped from 8 percent in 1990 to 36 percent by 2019. Among adults 65 and older, the divorce rate nearly quadrupled over the same period.1National Library of Medicine. The Graying of Divorce: A Half Century of Change
These “gray divorces” now drive a disproportionate share of alimony awards. When a spouse has been out of the workforce for 20 or 30 years and is nearing retirement age, the ability to build a new career is limited. Support in these cases tends to run larger and last longer than anything a younger professional would see.
Why Alimony Has Become Less Common
Three forces have pushed the numbers down.
The first is household earnings. When both spouses work and earn comparable incomes, courts see little reason to order ongoing support. An equal or near-equal split of marital assets already addresses the financial picture. Younger couples are the clearest example of this pattern.
The second is no-fault divorce. In states that have moved to purely no-fault systems, a spouse’s behavior during the marriage has no effect on the financial outcome. That removes one traditional lever for larger or longer awards.
The third is legislative reform. Several states have overhauled their alimony statutes in recent years, and the clearest trend is the elimination or restriction of permanent support. Reforms typically replace open-ended awards with durational limits tied to the length of the marriage and set caps on payment amounts. Some states now require a marriage to have lasted a minimum number of years before any alimony can be considered. Others impose strict requirements, like a documented disability, for shorter marriages. The overall direction is toward predictability and shorter awards.
What Still Triggers an Award
When alimony is ordered, a handful of factors do most of the work.
The Income Gap
The single most important factor is the gap between each spouse’s income and earning ability. Without a meaningful financial disparity, courts rarely see a reason to order payments at all. Judges review tax returns, pay stubs, and monthly expense reports to determine whether the lower-earning spouse genuinely cannot meet basic living costs alone.
Length of the Marriage
How long the marriage lasted is one of the strongest predictors of whether alimony will be awarded and how long it will run. Marriages under ten years are far less likely to result in ongoing support. For marriages at or above ten years, many states use formulas that tie the payment period to a fraction of the marriage’s length. A 15-year marriage might produce support lasting seven or eight years, depending on the jurisdiction.
Career Sacrifice and Standard of Living
Courts also weigh the standard of living the couple maintained, the age and physical health of each spouse, and non-financial contributions such as leaving a career to raise children or support the other spouse’s professional advancement. When the lower-earning spouse gave up years of career growth, judges are more likely to order support that compensates for the lost earning potential.
Health insurance is often part of the math. A spouse who was covered under the other’s employer plan can face significantly higher premiums after divorce, and courts may factor that added cost into the calculation.
Earning Capacity Versus Actual Earnings
If there is a dispute over what the lower-earning spouse could realistically earn, courts may order a vocational evaluation. A vocational expert interviews the spouse, reviews their education and work history, sometimes administers aptitude testing, and researches actual job openings in the local market. The resulting report gives the court a concrete dollar figure for earning capacity. If the court finds a spouse is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed, the judge can base the award on what that spouse could earn rather than what they currently earn, which often reduces or eliminates support.
Misconduct, in Some States
In some states, fault-based conduct like adultery or abandonment can still influence alimony. A spouse who committed serious misconduct may receive less support or be ordered to pay more. The weight given to misconduct varies widely, and in no-fault states it carries none at all.
How Geography Changes the Odds
Where the divorce is filed has a significant effect on whether support is ordered and how much.
One structural difference is between community property and equitable distribution states. In community property states, marital assets are generally split equally, which can reduce the need for ongoing support because the equal division already addresses the financial imbalance. In equitable distribution states, the court divides assets based on fairness rather than a strict 50/50 rule, leaving more room for alimony to fill an income gap.
State reforms have layered additional variation on top of that. Duration caps, minimum marriage lengths, and elimination of permanent support all vary by jurisdiction. Two spouses with identical finances and identical marriages can walk out of court with very different orders depending on the state.
How Long Payments Last
Even when support is awarded, it usually is not forever. Courts recognize several distinct categories, and the type awarded controls how long payments run.
- Temporary support covers the period while the divorce is being finalized and ends when the court issues a final order.
- Rehabilitative support is a fixed-term award meant to give the recipient time to gain education, job training, or work experience. Courts often require the recipient to follow a specific plan toward self-sufficiency.
- Durational support runs for a set period tied to the length of the marriage. Many states cap these awards at a percentage of the marriage’s duration, such as half the length of a shorter marriage or up to 75 percent for a longer one.
- Permanent support has no fixed end date and is typically reserved for very long marriages or situations where the recipient cannot become self-supporting due to age or a serious health condition.
Temporary and rehabilitative awards are by far the most common. Permanent alimony, once the default for homemakers in long marriages, is increasingly rare as state legislatures shift toward time-limited models. Put together, the picture is consistent: a smaller slice of divorces produce alimony, and within that slice, most awards now end on a schedule rather than running open-ended.