A decline in marriage and divorce in the U.S. was evident prior to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and published case studies reveal dramatic changes in marital behavior during the beginning months of the pandemic. We posit to update previous work by comparing monthly marriage and divorce counts for two years prior to the pandemic (2018 and 2019) and during the pandemic for the nine states with published monthly vital statistics data for 2020 and 2021. We will address two key research questions.  First, we will determine whether changes in marriage and divorce were short term responses to the pandemic or represent longer term shifts. Second, we will expand upon initial studies by statistically assessing the impact of state variations in response to the pandemic on Americans’ marital behavior.