The latest national statistics on divorces and civil partnership dissolution produced by the Office for National Statistics were released on 29 August 2008 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.
Provisional divorce rates fell to 11.9 divorces per 1,000 married men and women compared with 12.2 in 2006. This is the third consecutive annual fall and the lowest figure for 26 years.
The provisional number of divorces in England and Wales fell for the fourth year in succession to 128,534. This is a fall of 3.0 per cent compared with 2006.
The provisional number of divorces in the United Kingdom fell by 2.6 per cent in 2007 to 144,220 compared with 148,141 in 2006.
