It is the Baby Boomers bulge working their way through the demographic snake.
Yes and no, because they could have divorced a couple of decades ago but didn’t, but you see the rise in over 50 y.o’s getting divorced start to skyrocket in 1995. I don’t know why.
Assuming most boomers married at 25-30 years old, the majority would have married sometime between 1972-1985.
But by the mid 90’s, divorce rates were actually going down.
But by the same time frame (1995) divorce among over 50’s was rising. MOST boomers were not yet 50 in 1995 (boomers are post WWI thru early 60’s, no?). Someone born in 1945 would be 50 in 1995, but someone born 1962 would only be 33.
On the other hand, boomers are a huge cohort of people so they’re going to have an effect on just about every conceivable statistic involving people.