Divorces fall to 50-year low as those who do part wait longer

THE divorce rate has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 50 years, figures showed yesterday.

Only 84 marriages in every 10,000 ended in divorce last year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

This is the lowest rate since 1973, when divorce was booming in the wake of legal reforms that made it easier to end a marriage.

The ONS said divorce rates have dropped by 40 per cent since the 1990s and couples who do split legally are waiting longer before they part.

It added that a marriage that ends in divorce now typically lasts 12.2 years – the longest period since 1972.

Yesterday’s figures put the number of divorces last year at 101,669, just slightly above the 101,055 recorded in 2015 (equating to 85 in every 10,000 marriages). In 1973 it was 106,003 (84 in every 10,000).

Divorces have dropped by 34 per cent since 2003 – nearly three times the rate at which the number of marriages has been falling. The ONS report said: ‘Divorce rates remain well below the most recent peaks in 2003 and 2004.’

It suggested one explanation may be the growing number of couples who cohabit rather than marry. There are estimated to be 3.3million cohabiting couples in England and Wales, compared with fewer than 13million married. ‘Changes in attitudes to cohabitation as an alternative to marriage or prior to marriage, particularly at younger ages, are likely to have been a factor affecting the general decrease in divorce rates,’ the report added.

It pointed to legal reforms in 1969 that introduced the ‘quickie’ divorce for adultery or unreasonable behaviour as a reason for soaring divorce numbers in the 1970s.

‘Changes in behaviour and attitudes to divorce are considered to be an important factor behind the increase in divorce rates between the 1960s and the early 1990s,’ the ONS report said. Harry Ben-

‘Marriages are more stable’

son, of the Marriage Foundation think-tank, said: ‘It is excellent news that marriages today are more stable than at any time since the 1970s.

‘Our concerns should focus on the growing number of people who do not marry before having children.

‘While the odds of staying together are improving dramatically among those who marry, the odds of splitting up remain alarmingly high among those who don’t.’

The figures come amid concerns over Government plans to bring in a new no-fault divorce law, which ministers have admitted is likely to raise divorce numbers. Thomas Pascoe, of the Coalition for Marriage campaign group, said: ‘Plans for no-fault divorce are really about no-reason divorce. This undermines marriage.’