Metro

NY couples have fewer ‘split’ ends

Despite the hustle and bustle, and all the temptations that lurk in the Naked City, New York state had one of the lowest divorce rates in the nation last year, according to new Census figures.

Only New Jersey and North Dakota had rates lower than New York state’s 8.4 percent divorce rate in 2008, a number that dropped even lower in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

Even Manhattan’s 10 percent divorce rate was slightly lower than the national average of 10.7 percent.

In The Bronx, 9 percent of the residents were listed as divorced.

The county with New York’s highest divorce rate was Chemung, in the Finger Lakes region, with 12 percent, but the population there is only about 2,700.

None of New York’s counties even came close to the rate of the new divorce capital of America — Wayne County, Ind., at 19.2 percent.

Analysts said the nation’s poor economy has put more stress on husbands and wives.

Indiana has been hit hard by the collapse of the auto and manufacturing industries, and rural Wayne County’s unemployment rate is higher than that state’s average.

But divorce lawyers like Daniel Clement were at a loss to explain why New York’s rate wasn’t higher, given the stresses that go hand in hand with living in the Big Apple.

“I find that somewhat surprising,” said Clement, who just finished his first same-sex divorce case. “Life in New York is hard. I’m not sure what to make of it.”

But before righteous New Yorkers plant their moral flags in the ground, there are several things they should consider.

For one, divorces in New York are harder to get than in many other states, where no-fault laws are on the books.

New York has fewer people per capita getting married in the first place, a statistic that would naturally keep the divorce rate down.

Even the statisticians who compiled the data aren’t sure what it means yet.

The divorce rate, as newly defined by the Census Bureau, is the percentage of residents above the age of 15 who say they are divorced. That includes people who have been divorced for years or people who moved to a particular location after their marriages fell apart.

Since 2008 was the first year researchers collected information this way, there is no comparative data.

“It’s a different methodological approach,” said Diana Elliott, a family demographer in the bureau’s Fertility and Family Statistics branch. “I think we’ll see things in time.”

One thing that’s clear is that Nevada is hard on marriages, no matter how they compile the stats.

Nevada’s 14.2 percent divorce rate was the highest in the country.

Lawyers there attribute the divorce rate to a myriad of distractions, from gambling to go-go girls.

But couples in Nevada need only live there six weeks before their marriages can be dissolved.

leonard.greene@nypost.com