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Trends of marriage and divorce in the UK are an essential tool in tracking, analyzing, explaining and interpreting social changes within our society. The data is utilised to plan for the future success of our 'family unit', the development of services for our children and families, and to determine the effectiveness of currently implemented community programs.
Divorce Statistics: Their Interpretation and Relevance
The 'crude' divorce rate in the UK is expressed as a number of divorces recorded within that year per 1000 of the existing married population, which is taken provisionally from the previous year's records.
Previous calculation methods giving a wealth and variety of information include; recorded divorces in one year being compared to recorded marriages in the same year. Census records have been used to compare number of recorded divorces against the number of population. These methods are, of course, reliant on people being totally honest when filling in their census forms!
There is no completely accurate 'divorce' statistic for the UK. More importantly, there is no accurate statistic for the 'breakdown' of the family unit. It is possible to investigate the number of court proceedings registered for 'child custody', even where no marriage/divorce has taken place.
To determine the variation between these cases and those for divorce may be deemed relevant to the 'family unit'. But again, these statistics themselves become inaccurate, not reflecting one-parent families where one of the parents has never been present. There also, is no record of dissolution of the family, where satisfactory arrangements are made without the involvement of the court.
However, especially nowadays, not everyone gets legally married and so often separations are not recorded. It is worth considering the dissolution of alternative states of partnership; such as 'cohabitants', 'common-law marriage', 'civil unions' and 'domestic partnerships'.
Divorce rates for England and Wales in 2007 have fallen for the third year in a row. They are now at the lowest rate since 1981, 11.9 of 1000 married population, a fall of 2.5% on 2006. Although it is still true that 69% of all divorces can be attributed to first marriages.
Similar drops in the divorce rate can be found in Scotland, which will be a relief to the government. Scotland experienced a significant increase in divorces in 2006, with the introduction of 'The Family Act 2006'. This ruled out 'desertion' as a cause of irretrievable breakdown, and reduced the separation clauses from two and five years to one and two years, respectively. Whilst the number of divorces is still substantially higher than before the implementation of the Act, it is hopefully a positive sign for the 'family unit'.
Shockingly, the number of divorces recorded in Northern Ireland in 2007 shows an increase of 14% on the previous year.
The rate has been highest for the last six years in the 25-29 age group, showing that rushing into marriage at an early age is not recommended for the longevity of the relationship. It may still be true that some young couples feel forced into marriage because of unplanned pregnancies, as over half of divorces in 2007 involved one or more children under 16.
The credit boom, which has fast come to an end, may also be a factor in the number of young people entering into marriage. Many may have felt that sealing their 'coupledom' with a mortgage and a marriage certificate was the only way to get onto the ever-elusive property market. Still felt by some to be a sign to the world that they have succeeded early in life.
There are rises in other age groups: the over 60's and women aged 45-49; although the average length of a marriage 11.6 years has barely altered. This may be a sign of the ever growing independence of women in our society. The earning power, and with it the independence of women in the UK, can lead to lower tolerance in an unsatisfactory relationship. With over 54% of petitions filed by women, husband's behaviour is the proven fact causing the breakdown of the marriage.
Of the age group 45-49 suggests that the wife may have been unhappy for sometime, but has maybe sacrificed this to allow a child or children to reach an age where parental separation may be less detrimental to their children's overall up-bringing.
The over 60's group includes both men and women. It is highly relevant that lifestyle in this age group has changed significantly over the years. No longer is it assumed that once you retire, you will sit cosy in front of the fire, with your pipe and slippers, until the day you die. People expect to live longer, and will start entirely new lives once the burden of going to work every day has been lifted. The prospect of spending that precious last part of your life with someone, who you could barely be bothered with when you managed to escape them for 40-50 hours of the working week, may be simply too much.
As mentioned above, over half of all divorces in England and Wales involve one or more children under the age of 16. Of these, 20% are under the age of five and 63% under eleven. This is a frightening statistic for the future of our society. The effect of divorce on a child is felt for their entire lifetime, particularly where they are between the age of five and eleven. At this age, the child is old enough to fully experience the breakdown of the marriage, however carefully their parents try to protect them from it. In later life this can result in commitment issues and a lack of faith in the institution of marriage, assuming the outcome will inevitably be divorce. They may question having their own family, not wanting to be responsible for inflicting the same pain and sometimes inadequacy they experienced during the own parent's divorce.
Where number of children involved in divorce at any age increases, we may find that this affects birth rates and marriages.
Here are additional resources you might be interested in:
Divorce Statistics in Australia
Divorce Statistics in the USA
Are you on the verge of having a divorce? Read this to Save Your Marriage.
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