In 2008, the divorce rate in England and Wales fell to 11.2 divorcing people per 1,000 married population compared with the 2007 figure of 11.8, a fall of 5.1 per cent. The divorce rate is at its lowest level since 1979 when it was also 11.2.
For the fourth consecutive year, both men and women in their late twenties had the highest divorce rates of all five-year age groups. In 2008 there were 22.8 divorces per 1,000 married men aged 25 to 29 and 26.0 divorces per 1,000 married women aged 25 to 29. This compared with 16.5 divorces per 1,000 married men aged 45 to 49 and 14.5 divorces per 1,000 married women aged 45 to 49 in 2008.
Since 1998 the average age at divorce in England and Wales has risen from 40.4 to 43.9 years for men and from 37.9 to 41.4 years for women, partly reflecting the rise in age at marriage.
One in five men and women divorcing in 2008 had a previous marriage ending in divorce. This proportion has almost doubled since 1981 when 11 per cent of men and women divorcing had a previous marriage ending in divorce. Sixty-nine per cent of divorces in 2008 were to couples where the marriage was the first for both parties.
For 67 per cent of divorces in 2008, the wife was granted the divorce. For all divorces granted to an individual (rather than jointly to both), behaviour was the most common reason for divorce.
United Kingdom:
Between 2007 and 2008, the number of divorces granted in the UK fell by 5.5 per cent to 136,026, from 143,955. This is the fourth consecutive fall in the number of UK divorces and the lowest number since 1976 (135,960). The figure is 25 per cent lower than the highest number of divorces, which peaked in 1993 (180,523).
In 2008 in England and Wales the number of divorces fell by 5.0 per cent to 121,779, in Scotland they fell by 10 per cent from 12,810 in 2007 to 11,474 in 2008 and in Northern Ireland they fell by 4.8 per cent from 2,913 in 2007 to 2,773 in 2008.
05/02/2010 Correction notice – A production error was identified in the calculation of 2008 divorce rates, when originally published on 28 January 2010. All divorce rates contained in this nugget including those displayed in the chart have been corrected.
ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused
Notes:
The term divorce here includes both dissolutions and annulments.
The average (mean) ages presented have not been standardised for age and therefore do not take account of the changing age structure of the population.
The Divorce Reform Act 1969 came into effect in England and Wales on 1 January 1971. The Act, subsequently consolidated in the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, made it possible for the first time for divorce to be petitioned for on the couple’s separation.
The Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 came into effect in England and Wales on 12 October 1984. The Act made two changes, the first replaced the discretionary time bar (minimum time interval between the date of marriage and being able to file a petition for divorce) of three years by an absolute time bar of one year. No petition can now be filed within the first year of marriage. The second change meant the Act no longer required courts to try to place the divorced spouses in the financial position they would have enjoyed, had the marriage not broken down.
The Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 came into effect on 4 May 2006. The Act reduced the separation periods for divorce with consent to one year (previously two years) and without consent to two years (previously five years). It also removed 'desertion' as a ground.
Divorce figures for Scotland for 1985 onwards have been revised from those published previously.
Divorce figures for England and Wales differ slightly to those previously published due to duplicate records being identified and removed from the datasets. For further information see Note 4 in the Statistical Bulletin.
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