Panama City - Divorce Capital of America

A website survey ranked Panama City number one, in terms of divorce rate in the nation. In fact, the state of Florida pretty much dominates the list, with 11 out of the top 50. But Panama City is the divorce capital of the nation. That's according to a list recently released by the Daily Beast.

"We were interested in where divorce has been the most common this year and we did that two ways. We looked at the percent of population in each city that was divorced currently and the number of divorces that occurred in 2009," said Daily Beast Reporter, Lauren Streib.

The Daily Beast says Panama City leads the nation for the worst divorce rates, with 15.5 percent of the population divorced.

Four Florida cities made the top 10, and 11 made the top 50. Local experts say there may be good reasons for the trend.

"People come to the state of Florida for opportunity, for jobs or to get away from their past life. I have people come in frequently to see me who have moved here and are trying to fix their marriage and they think moving here for some reasons going to help," said Marriage Counselor, Dr. Joel Prather.

But reality is, when people get here, most soon realize they brought their marital problems with them.

"A lot of people come here thinking they're going to get things fixed because they moved to the beaches and it's beautiful and nice and the problems are still there. And one other factor you probably would have to consider in the Panama City Beach area is this is kind of a party place and sometimes partying too much gets in the way of relationships," said Dr. Prather.

Prather adds the economy has a lot to do with it, too.

"Panama City has been hit pretty hard with economic woes and as I said, one of the main reasons people go to get divorced, top two are infidelity and finances," added Dr. Prather.

According to court records, 994 people filed for divorce in Panama City in 2008, another 1066 in 2009.

The Clerk of Courts office has received 898 divorce filings so far this year, including the headline-grabbing case of Tiger and Elin Woods.

Dr. Prather adds Florida’s lenient divorce laws make it one of the easiest state's to receive a divorce. Louisiana has some of the strictest divorce laws.

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