Paul Birch and Stan Weed of the Institute for Research and Evaluation compared the divorce rate of the first 114 CMP counties to the rate in similar counties without the policy. While the divorce rate fell by 9.4 percent in the non-policy counties, counties that had enacted the Community Marriage Policy fell 17.5 percent over the same seven-year period. Birch and Weed estimated that between 31,000 and 50,000 marriages were preserved in the CMP counties.
Between 1990 and 2000, cohabitation rates also fell 13.4 percent in CMP localities, while they rose by 19.2 percent in counties without the policy.
In a proposal to the National Association of Evangelicals, Michael McManus has suggested three policy changes that could supplement and spread the beneficial effects of the Community Marriage Policy.
One proposal is to mandate that states spend between two and five percent of their welfare reform surplus on so-called "Health Marriage Initiatives," which could include instituting CMPs in a state.
McManus also proposes replacing no-fault divorce laws with mutual consent laws. "What was entered into by two people willingly should not be terminated by one person who alleges the couple is incompatible," he wrote in a letter to Catholic News Agency. He suggested there are constitutional problems with no-fault divorce, since the proceedings always result in a judgment favorable to the spouse who started the divorce proceedings. This could violate the guarantee of due process in the Fifth Amendment.
A change of child custody laws could also help children after a divorce or strengthen spouses' desire to preserve their marriage. Sole custody, the legal arrangement in which guardianship of children is awarded only to one parent after a divorce, could be changed to favor joint custody or shared parenting arrangements.