Roughly half of all marriages fail. That’s the good news.

Roughly two thirds of second marriages fail. That’s the bad news.

And that is part of the reason that marriage is on the decline, and cohabitation is gaining wider and wider popularity.

So much so that thirty-nine percent of Americans surveyed believe marriage is becoming obsolete.

The odds of second marriages succeeding rise where the partners have learned from their unsuccessful first marriages and try to do better the second time around.

Interestingly though, the couples more likely to give marriage another shot tend to be better educated and more privileged.

Cohabitation may work OK for partners without children, but children are more likely to thrive in households where the partners are married rather than cohabiting.

Read more in this New York Times series: Room for Debate: Why Remarry?.