How often do you hear phrases with the following general undertones: “architecture isn’t a profession it is a calling,” “architecture isn’t a career it is a way of life,” or “architecture doesn’t make life possible it makes it worth living”? Perhaps not that often, but enough that many architects see themselves as uniquely sacrificing aspects of their life for a higher cause. Some claim that architects have high divorce rates, suffer from depression, and endure a special degree of stress that causes early mortality from cancer and heart disease. Yikes! But what evidence is there for these serious claims? Admittedly, the evidence for or against such claims is not very robust. The first and best answer, except in the case of divorce, is to say, “I don’t know.” Sorting out the muddled statistics takes a fair degree of interpretation and guesswork. However, after reviewing the data that are available, it is more reasonable to believe that architects are, on average, happily married and healthy people.
The first three biographical films about architects I ever watched examined the lives of Wright, Kahn and Gehry. Two were notorious philanderers, and all three abandoned at least one family. These celebrated architects don’t paint a pretty picture for the profession, but they are also not accurate depictions of it. A study, published in 2010, examining U.S. Census data found that architects were among the least likely to get divorced. With a 10.95% divorce rate, architects ranked 405th out of the 449 occupations reviewed in the studied. This is even below the expected rate after the regression analysis that controlled for age, sex, race, and income.
