I'd like to see hard data as well, but I find it difficult to see where the staying power of a marriage would be dependent upon ones spirituality or lack thereof. Love is love, God or no. faithfulness, honesty, loyalty, commitment, none of these are the sole purview of either believers or non.

I think choice of belief has little bearing on the duration of a marriage.

Too many other variables .

I was divorced many decades ago. My 'bride', an uneducated candidate for Salvation Army 'officership', and young, and very stupid me, got married. Was that ever hell on wheels! There wasn't anything she wouldn't fight about---- just proves she should be in someone's 'army'.

I started reading- and the more I read the more I wanted to know. Religion dropped away as so buffoonish, that it wasn't even worth talking about. When a person is interested, and actually participates' in actual life, there isn't time left to psychologically participate in 'mud wrasslin''. There are better things to do in life. Education, honesty and a sense of humour are essential.(I have taken MANY credits and courses) Throw the religious lies and bull shit out the window.

I think in part it would depend on the Christian denomination, as to how stable a religious marriage would be. Some Christian denominations don't allow divorce.

I am not exactly neutral on the issue, being an atheist, but I think atheists are generally more honest, as they dont' have to hide their "sins" from their neighbors to keep up appearances. Shristians lie all the time to keep up appearances. I think honesty makes for a better marriage, and so I would suspect atheist marriages would be at least happier, if not more stable altogether.

The article at this link [salon.com] seems to support my supposition.

I am an atheist and my wife is a non practicing Catholic.Married 35 years .When I was looking to get married, a persons religious beliefs or lake of ,was not my main criteria in choosing a partner . It was the individuals character and moral beliefs .If an individual can not form a relationship with someone that has different beliefs than them I feel sorry for them .The inportant thing is that each individual except each other’s beliefs

Unless the people involved got together with one factor in common being religion and not much else, the odds are stacked up against them unless they know each other well and have many other things in common. I wouldn't say that based on being a theist or not, that will hold a marriage together. Some of these so called bible thumpers stay together for the wrong reasons and it causes more harm than good.

"the atheists and agnostics have lower rates of marriage and a higher likelihood of cohabitation"

Marriage Rates:
Christians (84%)
Non-Christian faiths (74%)
Atheists and agnostics (65%).

Divorce Rates:
Atheist or agnostic 30%
All born again Christians 32%
All non born again Christians 33%

Pew also has similar numbers here,
[pewforum.org]