CNBC Poll: Is a Drop in Income a Factor in Weighing Divorce?

There is something to be said for financial stability and sticking together during bad economic times.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that during the 2007-2009 period, when both the financial crisis and recession struck the U.S. economy, fewer people sought divorce.

Divorce can not only be expensive, it can lower one's standard of living.

About 60 percent of men and women who experienced a long-term income drop after divorce and remained single failed to recover after 10 years, according to the Pew Trusts' latest economic mobility project.

Post-divorce income has always been worse for women than men, but conditions have been improving, according to the report, with more women joining the workforce and obtaining high-paying jobs.

For women, the chance of experiencing an income decline of 25 percent of more within two years of divorce fell from 63 percent in the early 1970s to 49 percent in the last decade.

For men, however, the trend was reversed: The chance of a similar income drop increased from 30 percent to 47 percent.

Still, while the overall rate of divorce is declining, data show that a growing number of women will be divorced and poor when they reach retirement, according to research by the Social Security Administration.

Around 20 percent of them age 65 or older live in poverty, compared with 18 percent of never-married women and 15 percent of widowed women.

So, what do you think?