Our sources

We only publish numbers we can trace to a primary source: the original study, official statistics, or the organization's own reporting. Secondary retellings, influencer polls, and unattributed "studies show" claims are rejected at the fact-gate.

Primary sources currently cited

No primary sources are cited yet — the fact gate is empty. Every source we rely on will be listed here with its year and method.

What we rejected, and why

This list matters as much as the one above. These are figures that circulate widely in writing about widowhood and that we could not trace to a primary source, so they do not appear anywhere on this site.

Nothing has been rejected yet. When a widely-repeated figure fails verification, it gets named here so it never creeps back in.

The rules

1. Named source in the same sentence as the number, with the year.
2. Primary source only — we link the origin, not an article about it.
3. Dated verification: every statistic carries its verification date on the statistics page.
4. Unverifiable → unpublished. No exceptions.