# Archiving Contemporary County and State Nuptiality Data

> **NIH NIH R03** · BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $71,000

## Abstract

Abstract
Despite dramatic changes in family behavior—including the legalization of same-sex marriage—
in the U.S., contemporary local level marriage and divorce data are not available. The
deterioration and defunding of the marriage and divorce vital statistics system means there is
limited capacity to understand geographic variation in marriage and divorce. A limitation of the
American Community Survey is that it cannot provide a point in time estimate of marriage and
divorce for all counties or county equivalents, and this is especially problematic in rural areas
during times of rapid change. No centralized location or agency is responsible for providing
administrative data on marriage and divorce at the local level. The call for local area family data
have come from several constituent groups. While efforts have been made to fill this gap, spatial
and temporal variation in how these marriage and divorce patterns operate since 2010 among
different-gendered couples and since the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015 remain
unknown. Our objective is to continue our past efforts in amassing, assembling, and cleaning
administrative marriage and divorce counts, and for the first time include counts of same-gender
marriages. Further, we will harmonize the data spatiotemporally in statistical analysis friendly
formats. This will enable researchers to link marriage and divorce data to existing data by
county, state, and year—a specifically designated purpose of this program announcement. Our
third and final aim will be to disseminate the data via the National Center for Family & Marriage
Research and the Data Sharing for Demographic Research websites. The dissemination will
increase awareness of these valuable data across many potential data users. This innovative
project fits squarely with the PDB mission to enhance knowledge and data availability on
families and households. This, in turn, is expected to enhance currently available data and
increase their potential scientific impact through increased accessibility and efficiency. More
specifically, we will be providing the first and only documentation of administrative data on
same-gender marriages. The application is consistent with the purpose of the R03 mechanism
and this specific program announcement and will offer a resource to a multidisciplinary set of
researchers, policy makers, and practitioners.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10108463
- **Project number:** 1R03HD103830-01
- **Recipient organization:** BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Krista Kay Westrick-Payne
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $71,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-23 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10108463

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10108463, Archiving Contemporary County and State Nuptiality Data (1R03HD103830-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10108463. Licensed CC0.

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