Divorce rate down as more couples delay the big day

AUSTRALIANS are getting married later than ever before, are much more likely to “try before they buy” by living together before tying the knot — and experts say divorce rates have plummeted as a result.

In fact, the drop in divorces has resulted in rates that haven’t been seen since the mid 1970s, when no-fault divorce laws came into force.

Marriage has been increasingly taken up by a younger generation who have watched older generations struggle to cope as single parents, social researchers say.

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the divorce rate now sits on 1.9 per 1000 people — coming close to the figure of 1.8 recorded in 1975, the last year of the old divorce laws.

Before the Family Law Act reforms, a divorce was more difficult to get, and warring couples were forced to “prove” adultery by methods such as hiring detectives to gather evidence for court cases.

Social researcher Mark McCrindle said marriage continued to be very popular.

There are on average 326 marriages every day across the nation. October is the most popular month, followed by November.

“In the last couple of years we have seen the marriage rate rise from 4.8 per thousand in 2015 to 4.9,” Mr McCrindle said. “What it’s telling us is that marriage is still very much in vogue; a key part of our society.”

In the late 1970s, after the law changes, women aged in their late 20s had a 31.5 per cent chance of being a divorcee compared with today’s figure of 14 per cent.

By 1996 there were 52,466 divorces a year, working out at a rate of 2.9 per 1000 people.

Despite population increases since then, the number of divorces has dropped to 46,604.

Mr McCrindle said the number of marriages that end in divorce is close to one in three.

Tiyce and Lawyers divorce lawyer Michael Tiyce said the two peak ages for divorce were those aged in their mid-20s and in their late 40s.

“Quite a few people think it’s important to stay together for the sake of the children, so the 25 to 29-year age group is probably before kids and the 45 to 49-year group is when kids are grown up, or a bit older and people are wanting to move on with their lives,” Mr Tiyce said.

Older brides and grooms and more de facto living partly explained the changes. The average bride’s age was almost 30 and for grooms it was 32.

The majority of couples — about 80 per cent — live together before tying the knot.