Divorce is a common experience in the United States, with approximately 40% -50% of first marriages likely to end in divorce Fill in the blanks to summarize historical and current trends in divorce. Two different measures of the divorce rate are commonly used in the United States. The crude divorce rate measures the number of divorces per 1,000 __ while the refined divorce rate measures the number of divorces per 1 ,000 square The ratio measure of divorce represents the number of divorces by calculating the number of divorces square in a given year.