As of 2025, Sri Lanka had the lowest divorce rate in the world, with 0.15 divorces per 1,000 population. Vietnam and Guatemala followed with 0.2 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants.

As of 2024, the divorce rate in China decreased to *** divorces per 1,000 inhabitants. Before 2020, this number had been constantly increasing since 2002. Divorce rate in Asian countries The divorce rate in China soared from around **** divorces per 1,000 people in 2000 to **** divorces in 2019. This is a quite high value compared to the divorce rate of countries in the Asia Pacific region. However, China shares the fate of a growing divorce rate with many other developing countries, while in most developed countries, the number of divorces per 1,000 inhabitants is either stable or falling. For example, the divorce rate in Singapore has been manly stable at *** divorces per 1,000 inhabitants in the last ten years and the divorce rate in South Korea has fallen from *** in 2009 to *** in 2024. In comparison, the U.S. divorce rate has been falling since 1992 from *** divorces per 1,000 people to *** divorces in 2022. Dating scene in China For the younger generations, dating and marriage happens (if at all) at a much later life stage compared to their parents. The fact that China has the highest working hours in the region does not ease the dire situation for singles in China, most of them being employed as professionals or employed in the media sector, where long working hours and high work pressure are quite common.

Number of divorces and various divorce indicators (crude divorce rate, divorce rate for married persons, age-standardized divorce rate, total divorce rate, mean and median duration of marriage, median duration of divorce proceedings, percentage of joint divorce applications), by place of occurrence, 1970 to most recent year.

Annual divorce numbers and rates, by duration of marriage, sex, to whom granted and reason, that took place in England and Wales.

In 2021, the divorce rate in England and Wales was *** divorces per thousand married couples, which was significantly higher than the rate in 2018, which was ***. The Divorce rate in England and Wales has been falling steadily since a rate of **** was recorded in 2003 and 2004. In the last available data for Scotland in 2008, the divorce rate was ****.

Mean age and median age at divorce and at marriage, for persons who divorced in a given year, by sex or gender and place of occurrence, 1970 to most recent year.

Abstract

Marriage data: In South Africa Civil Marriages are administered through the Marriage Act, 1961 (Act No. 25 of 1961) as amended, and its associated regulations. Customary marriages are governed by the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, 1998 (Act No. 120 of 1998) which came into effect on 15 November 2000. Civil unions (relationships between same-sex couples that are legally recognized by a state authority) are covered by the Civil Union Act, 2006 (Act No. 17 of 2006) which came into operation on 30 November 2006.

The South African Department of Home Affairs is responsible for the administration of marriages in South Africa, under these laws. After the ceremony of a marriage or a civil union, the marriage officer submits the data to the nearest office of the Department of Home Affairs (DHS), where the marriage / civil union details for citizens and permanent residents are recorded in the National Population Register (NPR). Statistics South Africa obtains data on marriages and civil unions from DHA through the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) for this dataset

NOTE: In customary marriages, the two spouses and their witnesses present themselves at a DHA office in order to register a customary marriage. Therefore the province of registration is not necessarily the province of the place of usual residence of the couple since the registration of the marriage can take place in any DHA office.

Divorce data: The dissolution of registered marriages and civil unions is governed by the Divorce Act, 1979 as amended, and its associated regulations (Act No.70 of 1979) and the Jurisdiction of Regional Courts Amendment Act, 2008 (Act No. 32 of 2008) as amended which came into effect on 9 August 2010. The South African Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DJCD) is responsible for managing divorces under these Acts. Statistics South Africa obtains the divorce data from the DJCD for this dataset.

NOTE: The data includes divorce applications that were concluded in 2018, that is, that were finalised and issued with decrees of divorce in 2018 by DJCD.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

Individuals

Universe

The data covers all civil marriages that were recorded by the Department of Home Affairs and all divorce applications that were granted by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in 2018 in South Africa.

Kind of data

Administrative records data [adm]

Mode of data collection

Other [oth]

Data appraisal

Geography is problematic in this dataset as not all the data files have geographic data. The Civil Marriages and Civil Unions data files include a Province of Registration variable, but the Customary Marriages data file does not. There is also no geographical data in the Divorces file. As this data file includes divorce data from only a subset of divorce courts, this lack of geographical information compromises its usability.

In 2023, the European country with the highest divorce rate per 100 marriages was Finland, with more than 55 divorces. At the bottom of the list was Ireland with only 15.5 divorces per 100 marriages.

Marriages Registered By Ethnic Group: Under Muslim Law Act (UMLA) data was reported at 281.000 Number in May 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 475.000 Number for Apr 2018. Marriages Registered By Ethnic Group: Under Muslim Law Act (UMLA) data is updated monthly, averaging 305.000 Number from Jan 1961 (Median) to May 2018, with 689 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 954.000 Number in Dec 1988 and a record low of 23.000 Number in Feb 1963. Marriages Registered By Ethnic Group: Under Muslim Law Act (UMLA) data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Department of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Singapore – Table SG.G007: Vital Statistics: Marriages & Divorces.

In 2020, the number of divorces in France was 57,437. France had a divorce rate of 55 per 100 marriages in 2020. A number which was not one of the highest in Europe, but that emphasizes the fact that in recent years, divorce is a phenomenon with a significant impact on Western countries. The characteristics of French divorces Despite a record number of 152,020 separations in 2005, the number of divorces in France remained stable since the mid-2000s and has also been declining at a rate of 8 percent between 2004 and 2014. Since then, the number of divorces remained almost the same in the country, even though an decrease has been seen between 2016 and 2017. In 2019, the majority of divorces in France were pronounced by mutual consent. Most of divorces pronounced in France concerned marriages which lasted between 4 years and 7 years. Unions in France The number of marriages in France has been decreasing since 2004 and reached 220,000 in 2021, compared to 236,826 ten years before. Same-sex marriage was legalized in France in 2013, but civil partnerships are the type of unions that have increased in recent years. More than 205,000 civil partnerships were contracted in 2010 in France. Implemented in 1999, civil unions in France are established between two individuals regardless of gender.

How many married couples are in the U.S.? In 2023, there were 62.18 million married couples in the United States. This is an increase from 40.2 million married couples in 1960. Marriage in the U.S. While the number of married couples in the U.S. has increased in the past few decades, this could very well just be due to population change, since while the U.S. population has been increasing, the marriage rate has decreased significantly since 1990. In addition, the divorce rate has almost halved since 1990 despite concerns that more people are getting divorced than in years past. Same-sex marriage in the U.S. After years of advocacy, same-sex marriage became legal in the United States in June 2015. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal in a landmark ruling in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges. In 2015, a clear majority of Americans were in favor of the legalization of same-sex marriage, and approval has only been increasing in the years since.

Annual UK and constituent country figures for births, deaths, marriages, divorces, civil partnerships and civil partnership dissolutions.

In the legal year 2018/2019, the total number of divorces in Tunisia stood at ******. Most cases - amounting to ***** - were caprice divorces. This is a procedure carried out by the husband or the wife without presenting any reasons for the divorce. In recent years, the number of divorces in the country has been increasing annually.

All around the world, more and more people are single and live alone. In 2018, there were about 200 million single adults residing in China and more than a third of them lived alone. The world’s most populous country has been facing an increasing trend of delaying marriage and a rising divorce rate in recent years.

What makes tying the knot so hard? Getting married could be a long struggle for many Chinese adults. Owing to the decades-long one-child policy and the preference for a male child, China has an imbalanced sex ratio with over 30 million more men than women in 2018. The male ratio was particularly high in provinces like Guangdong and Tianjin. Furthermore, certain socio-economic expectations make searching for a life partner hard among the Chinese. A potential bride or bridegroom is expected to be multifaceted with emphasis laid on physical appearance alongside personal traits. A 2019 survey showed that many Chinese residing in big cities had the expectation that an ideal partner must earn a competitive salary.

Happily ever after? One might ask “Has this quest for the ideal lover been successful?” Based on the spike in China’s marriage rate in 2013, one might agree. However, many fairytale romances were short-lived with the country’s divorce rate having shot up and the marriage rate having declined to 7.3 percent by 2018.

In 2022, there were around **** million marriages in the United States. This is an increase from the previous year, when about **** million marriages were registered in the country. The divorce rate in the United States can be accessed here.

In 2023, there were about 15.09 million children living with a single mother in the United States, and about 3.05 million children living with a single father. The number of children living with a single mother is down from its peak in 2012, and the number of children living with a single father is down from its peak in 2005.

Marriage and divorce in the United States

Despite popular opinion in the United States that “half of all marriages end in divorce,” the divorce rate in the U.S. has fallen significantly since 1992. The marriage rate, which has also been decreasing since the 1990s, was still higher than the divorce rate in 2021. Half of all marriages may not end in divorce, but it does seem that fewer people are choosing to get married in the first place.

New family structures

In addition to a falling marriage rate, fewer people in the U.S. have children under the age of 18 living in the house in comparison to 1970. Over the past decade, the share of families with children under 18, whether that be married couples or single parents, has stayed mostly steady, although the number of births in the U.S. has also fallen.

In 2011, the average number of children in French families was *** children. This number was a little bit higher in blended families which accounted for *** children on average. With a higher divorce rate and a decreasing birth rate, families in France are experiencing changes in recent years.

More and more blended families in France

The most common family type in France in 2015 was a couple with children. In 2016, France was still the country with the highest fertility rate in Europe. That year, France had a mean of over **** children being born alive to a woman during her lifetime. French citizens have more children than their European neighbors which does not necessarily mean that France is not impacted by the decline of births. However, with the rising number of divorces in the country, more children are now living in a new type of family. Stepfamilies are becoming more common and in a survey from 2015, ** percent of responding French declared that they were in favor of creating a stepparent status for stepfamilies.

The evolution of family structure

Family structure is evolving in France and in Europe. Getting married and then having children in that order are not the most common life path anymore. In 2018, there were more than 60 percent of children born out of wedlock in France. Also, the country saw an increasing number of single parent families. The democratization of parental leave, as well as LGBT parenting, are reshaping the structure and the views public opinion could have about what being a family is.

In 2023, Tokyo Prefecture registered 1.49 new divorces per 1,000 inhabitants, up from 1.43 divorces in the previous year. The divorce rate in the prefecture had shown a steady decrease until 2023.

The average age at which people in England and Wales get married has been rising since the 1970s, with the average age of men marrying women increasing from **** in 1972 to **** by 2019, with the average age for women marrying men going up from **** to **** in the same time period. Since 2014 and the legalization of same-sex marriage in England and Wales, the average age for men marrying men has fluctuated between **** and ****, while the average age for females marrying females has fluctuated between **** and ****. Strong support for same-sex marriage in UK Over ten years after same-sex marriage was legalized in most of the UK, polls have shown consistent support for the legislation. As of May 2025, ** percent of Britons supported same-sex marriage, compared with ** percent who opposed it, and ***** percent who did not know. England and Wales was the first jurisdiction to allow same-sex marriages, with the first marriages taking place in March 2014, followed by Scotland in December of that year. Legislation allowing same-sex marriage was not passed in Northern Ireland until 2019, with the first marriages not taking place in 2020. Most popular wedding dates In 2022, the most popular wedding date across the entire year in England and Wales was July 30, with ***** weddings taking place that day. The next most popular wedding date was August 20, which had ***** weddings, followed by May 28, at *****. All three of these dates were Saturday's, which, at over ** percent of all weddings, was by far the most popular day of the week for weddings to be held the week. As for the most popular month, August had the most weddings held in 2022, at ******, with ****** being held in July, and ****** in June, the second, and third-most popular months for weddings, respectively.