Cheating Statistics in America

A person’s political identity, family background, and religious activity are closely related to the phenomenon of cheating in America. Overall, Democrats, adults who didn’t grow up in intact families, and those who rarely or never attend religious services are more likely to engage in infidelity than others. For instance, 15% of adults raised by both biological parents have cheated on their spouse, compared to 18% of those who did not grow up in intact families. 

On the other hand, when examining the demographics of infidelity, having a college degree does not correlate with a higher chance of cheating. Nearly equal proportions of college-educated adults and those with a high school diploma or less have been unfaithful to their spouse (16% vs. 15%), with the share among adults with some college education being slightly higher at 18%. 

To better understand these trends, I ran a regression model to assess the independent effect of each factor on infidelity statistics. This model holds all other factors constant to determine if each one still impacts the odds of cheating. It was revealed that most of these differences—such as age, race, party identity, religious service attendance, and family background—are significant even after controlling for other factors. Interestingly, a person’s education level is not significantly associated with cheating. 

However, when analyzing who is more likely to cheat, men and women exhibit very few common traits. Separate regression models by gender indicate that, for men, being Republican and having grown up in an intact family do not reduce the likelihood of cheating after controlling for other factors. Yet, race, age, and religious service attendance remain significant factors. Additionally, men’s education level is positively linked to their odds of infidelity. In contrast, for women, party ID, family background, and religious service attendance are significant predictors of cheating, but race, age, and educational attainment do not play a relevant role. In fact, religious service attendance is the only factor that consistently predicts both men’s and women’s odds of infidelity. 

Infidelity is emotionally painful for the person who is cheated on and can have damaging effects on the relationship. Although specific statistics on the link between infidelity and divorce are difficult to find, my analysis based on GSS data indicates that adults who have cheated are significantly more likely than those who haven’t to be divorced or separated.