We used Saturday Night Science to analyze Rhode Island’s most recent Census data to determine the divorce rate for each city in Rhode Island based on the percentage of currently divorced residents.
The city with the highest divorce rate in Rhode Island is Chepachet, with 12.0% of people over 15 years of age being divorced, per the most recent census data. The city with the lowest divorce rate in Rhode Island is Melville.
Rhode Island is 6.0% divorced overall. There are some 52,886 people living in Rhode Island over fifteen years of age who are divorced. You can compare that to the 28,339,199 Americans who are currently divorced.
Isn’t the divorce rate in America close to 50%? Yes indeed. But we’re measuring something else; we are looking at counts and percentages of people over 15 years old who are currently divorced. That 50% statistic is for the percentage of people who have ever been divorced.
So now that we have you biting your nails, rethinking your worldview, and pulling out your hair, let’s look at the places in Rhode Island with the highest rates of divorcees.
12.0% divorced · #1 highest divorce rate in Rhode Island
9.0% divorced · #2 highest divorce rate in Rhode Island
8.0% divorced · #4 highest divorce rate in Rhode Island
Located in
Providence County, Rhode Island
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
8.0% divorced · #4 highest divorce rate in Rhode Island
Located in
Kent County, Rhode Island
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
8.0% divorced · #4 highest divorce rate in Rhode Island
7.0% divorced · #8 highest divorce rate in Rhode Island
Located in
Providence County, Rhode Island
Woonsocket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 41,186 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state. Woonsocket lies directly south of the Massachusetts state line and constitutes part of both the Providence metropolitan area and the larger Greater Boston Combined Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
7.0% divorced · #8 highest divorce rate in Rhode Island
Located in
Newport County, Rhode Island
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
7.0% divorced · #8 highest divorce rate in Rhode Island
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
7.0% divorced · #8 highest divorce rate in Rhode Island
Located in
Providence County, Rhode Island
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
7.0% divorced · #8 highest divorce rate in Rhode Island
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Rhode Island’s statewide median.
Rhode Island statewide median: $87,796
On the map
Where Rhode Island’s highest divorce rates are
Saturday Night Science
How We Determined The Places In Rhode Island That Get Un-Hitched The Most
We used Saturday Night Science to look at the U.S. Census Bureau on divorce rates. Because who likes tracking misery more than the U.S. government?
Specifically, we looked at the 2020-2024 American Community Survey table S1201 — Marital Status. Pretty straightforward on that front — we just had to extract the following column of data:
Today, the analysis focuses on the 25 places in Rhode Island with a population of over 1,000.
- Population 15 Years and Over -> Divorced
We ranked each place by the percentage of divorcees over 15 years of age from highest to lowest. We crowned the divorce capital of Rhode Island the place with the highest incidence of divorcees, Chepachet.
And if you’re trying to avoid divorce, check out Melville, the city with the lowest divorce rate in Rhode Island. We updated this article for 2026 and this list is our eleventh time ranking the cities in Rhode Island with the highest divorce rates.
The full plate
Cities With The Highest Divorce Rates In Rhode Island
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Divorcees | Divorce Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chepachet | 1,923 | 185 | 12.0% |
| 2 | Ashaway | 1,722 | 124 | 9.0% |
| 4 | Greenville | 8,296 | 531 | 8.0% |
| 4 | Warwick | 83,175 | 5,323 | 8.0% |
| 4 | Harrisville | 1,767 | 113 | 8.0% |
| 8 | Woonsocket | 43,521 | 2,437 | 7.0% |
| 8 | Newport East | 11,069 | 620 | 7.0% |
| 8 | Narragansett Pier | 3,167 | 177 | 7.0% |
| 8 | Valley Falls | 12,657 | 709 | 7.0% |
| 8 | Carolina | 1,048 | 59 | 7.0% |
| 11 | East Providence | 47,281 | 2,269 | 6.0% |
| 11 | Cranston | 83,250 | 3,996 | 6.0% |
| 13 | Harmony | 1,006 | 40 | 5.0% |
| 13 | Pawtucket | 75,893 | 3,036 | 5.0% |
| 16 | Pascoag | 4,410 | 141 | 4.0% |
| 16 | Westerly | 18,411 | 589 | 4.0% |
| 16 | Cumberland Hill | 8,648 | 277 | 4.0% |
| 16 | Newport | 24,874 | 796 | 4.0% |
| 19 | Central Falls | 22,701 | 545 | 3.0% |
| 19 | Hope Valley | 2,297 | 55 | 3.0% |
| 21 | Providence | 191,767 | 3,068 | 2.0% |
| 21 | Tiverton | 8,091 | 129 | 2.0% |
| 23 | Kingston | 7,332 | 59 | 1.0% |
| 24 | Bradford | 1,511 | 0 | 0.0% |
| 24 | Melville | 1,631 | 0 | 0.0% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 25 cities with more than 1,000 residents.
Summary
Getting Some Closure In Rhode Island After Untying The Knot
We now have a sense of what places in the Ocean State don’t pay much attention to the whole “’til death do we part” phrase.
The cities with the highest divorce rate in Rhode Island are Chepachet, Ashaway, Greenville, Warwick, Harrisville, Woonsocket, Newport East, Narragansett Pier, Valley Falls, and Carolina.
Try to keep in mind that the reason cities rank where they do in Rhode Island could be because of the age, education, and income distribution, as all of those things impact the rate of divorce.
