Sadly, divorce is sometimes a byproduct of marriage. Many couples simply don't work out and eventually end their relationship in legal terms. The 10 states with the highest divorce rates prove that divorce can affect anyone, no matter what part of the country they live in.

According to a new study by Texas Divorce Laws, the District of Columbia, a.k.a Washington, D.C., ranks as the place with the highest divorce rate in the nation. A whopping 20.85 percent of marriages end in divorce in the U.S. capital, which has a population of 52,050 people who are divorced versus 197,565 who are married.

New Mexico comes in second with a divorce rate of 19.75 percent. There are 221,211 divorced people in the state versus 989,670 married people.

Check out the full list below.

Here are the top 10 U.S. states with the highest divorce rates:

  1. District of Columbia — 20.85 percent
  2. New Mexico — 19.75 percent
  3. Nevada — 19.66 percent
  4. Oregon — 18.76 percent
  5. Arkansas — 18.75 percent
  6. West Virginia — 18.68 percent
  7. Maine — 18.49 percent
  8. Louisiana — 18.37 percent
  9. Florida — 18.33 percent
  10. Indiana — 18.25 percent

The study was conducted by examining United States Census Bureau data for the divorced population in comparison to data for the married population.

"The data shows how the size of the married population is not necessarily directly proportional to the divorce rate. In fact, in states where there is a lower amount of people who have been married or are still married, the divorce rate can be higher. Therefore, the most marriages in a state does not necessarily mean the most divorces," a spokesperson for Texas Divorce Laws said in a statement.

According to The National Law Review, over the past few years experts have predicted an increase in divorce rates due to the stress of the pandemic, related financial troubles and lengthy quarantine times.

Despite this, the national divorce rate has been trending downward over the past 10 years.

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