According to the 2020 UNIDOMO questionnaire, Portugal clearly led the list of European countries with the highest divorce rate per 100 marriages. With 91.5 divorces the Portuguese Republic led the list, followed by Spain and Luxembourg. All three countries boast a significantly higher share than the other European countries, each reporting a divorce rate over 80 divorces.

A different way to look at Portugal

While Portugal clearly has the most divorces per 100 marriages, looking at divorce rates per 1.000 inhabitants in other European countries alters the picture of the country as one unsettled by significant numbers of divorces. With nearly 1.7 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants Portugal has roughly the same divorce rate as Germany and the Netherlands. Interesting is furthermore that although marriages in Portugal tend to result in divorce lightly more often as in Luxembourg (80.3%), the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg experienced a 0.6 point higher divorce rate.

What about the rest of the World?

While compared with Latin American countries like Guatemala or Peru, ranked among the countries with the lowest divorce rates in the world, Luxembourg’s divorce rate seems excessive. However, when compared with divorce rates (per 1.000 inhabitants) of countries like the United States (2.7) or China (3.5) divorce rates from Luxembourg and Europe are not out of the ordinary.

In 2020, Latvia, Denmark, and Lithuania had the highest divorce rates among countries in the European Union, at 2.7 divorces per 1,000 population. By contrast, Malta had the lowest divorce rate at 0.5 divorces per 1,000 population.

Licensed under: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

In 2020, Germany had aproximately 143,801 divorces taking place, which was the highest in the European Union. France had the second highest number of divorces at 128,043.

The crude divorce rate is the ratio of the number of divorces during the year to the average population in that year. The value is expressed per 1000 persons.

MIP21 - European Divorce Rates. Published by Eurostat. Available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0).European Divorce Rates...

Portugal was the European country with the highest divorce rate in 2020, counting almost 92 divorces per 100 marriages. However, in 2023, the divorce-marriage ratio decreased to 47 percent. In 2020, the ratio peaked because of the drop in marriages during the coronavirus (COVID-19) related lockdown. Pandemic years registered the lowest numbers of marriages and divorces since 2010 Until 2019, the annual divorce rate in Portugal had been relatively stable at around two divorces per 1,000 residents. Nevertheless, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the lowest divorce rate so far was recorded at 1.7, which may be explained by the restrictions imposed by lockdowns and the delays in administrative and bureaucratic services. Still, and due to the same reasons, the number of marriages also suffered a steep decline in 2020 to around 18,900, more than doubling in 2022 and surpassing 2011 figures. First marriages and motherhood occur later in life in Portugal The mean age on first marriage of both men and women in Portugal has been increasing at an almost constant pace for years. 2021 marked an inversion of this tendency, with the mean age of men when marrying for the first time decreasing to 34.3 years of age and the mean age of women decreasing to 32.9 years. However, the rising trend in age was quickly reestablished, as 2022 recorded the highest mean age on first marriage for both sexes. Under the same inclination is the average age of women when giving birth to their first child, which was at 30.9 years in 2021, increasing two years of age in relation to 2010.

Analysis of ‘Gross Divorce rate by province. IDB (API identifier: 25212)’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from http://data.europa.eu/88u/dataset/urn-ine-es-tabla-t3-38-25212 on 19 January 2022.

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Table of INEBase Gross Divorce rate by province. Annual. Provinces. Basic Demographic Indicators

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This table includes the most important key figures on marriage dissolutions due to death and divorce among the registered population of the Netherlands. Excluding dissolutions due to ending registered partnerships.

Data available from: 1950

Status of the figures: All data recorded in this table are final data.

Changes per 1 July 2025: Data of 2024 have been added.

When will new figures be published? In the third quarter of 2026 final figures of 2025 will be added in this publication.

This paper estimates the effects of unilateral divorce laws on divorce rates in the USA from a panel of state-level divorce rates. We use the interactive fixed-effects model to address the issue of endogeneity due to the association between cross-state unobserved heterogeneity and divorce law reforms. We document that earlier studies in the literature do not fully control for unobserved heterogeneity and result in mixed empirical evidence on the effects of divorce law reforms. While reconciling these conflicting results, our results suggest that divorce law reforms have temporal positive effects on divorce rates, thus confirming the 2006 findings of Wolfers. Via simulation experiments, we assess the degree to which faulty inclusion or faulty exclusion of interactive fixed effects affects the policy effect estimators. Our results suggest that faulty inclusion only results in efficiency loss whereas faulty exclusion causes bias.

Analysis of ‘Divorce rates according to sex and nationality (Spanish/foreign). IDB (API identifier: 25197)’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from http://data.europa.eu/88u/dataset/urn-ine-es-tabla-t3-38-25197 on 19 January 2022.

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Table of INEBase Divorce rates according to sex and nationality (Spanish/foreign). Annual. Basic Demographic Indicators

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In 2023, 6.5 marriages were registered per 1,000 inhabitants in Russia, compared to 4.7 divorces per 1,000 population. The marriage rate in the country saw an increase compared to the previous year. In 2011, 9.2 marriages were registered per 1,000 Russians, which was the highest number recorded over the period under consideration. What do marriage and divorce rates mean? The crude marriage rate refers to the number of marriages per one thousand population, according to the United Nations Population Division. In total, around 946,000 marriages were registered in Russia in 2023, while the country’s population was estimated at 146.3 million in that year. Another indicator relevant to Russian demographics is the crude divorce rate, which is the number of divorces recorded in a year per 1,000 population, as defined by the United Nations Population Division. In total, nearly 684,000 divorces were registered in Russia in 2023. What do Russians think of marriage? In every age category, most Russians believed that being married and living in a family was most preferable in the society. However, the share of family and marriage supporters was the lowest among 18-to-24-year-olds, measuring at 60 percent. Both for men and women, the ideal age to get married was considered in a person’s twenties.

Table of INEBase Divorce Rates by Autonomous Community, according to sex, age group and nationality (Spanish/foreigner) (since 2011). Annual. Autonomous Communities and Cities. Basic Demographic Indicators

Analysis of ‘Divorce rates according to sex and age group (2005 to 2010). IDB (API identifier: 25196)’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from http://data.europa.eu/88u/dataset/urn-ine-es-tabla-t3-38-25196 on 07 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Table of INEBase Divorce rates according to sex and age group (2005 to 2010). Annual. National. Basic Demographic Indicators

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

In 2020, the number of divorces in France was of 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 by 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 is decreasing since 2004 and reached 220,000 in 2021, compared to 236,826 ten years before. Same-sex marriage was legalized in France since 2013, but civil partnerships are the type of unions that 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.

Analysis of ‘Divorces by date of divorce, length of marriage and age and nationality of former spouses ’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from http://data.europa.eu/88u/dataset/100139-kanton-basel-stadt on 12 January 2022.

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This dataset shows the divorces in Basel-Stadt by date of divorce, length of marriage, as well as by the age and nationality of the woman or man. The data shall be updated annually. Before 1984, only the total of divorces is available. In 2000, a new divorce law came into force. In 2010, this was adjusted. Until 2006, a divorce was counted in Basel-Stadt if the applicant was domiciled in Basel-Stadt. Since 2007, a divorce has been counted in Basel-Stadt if the man resides in Basel-Stadt, or if he lives abroad and the woman lives in Basel-Stadt. For methodological reasons, the values published here may differ from those in public statistics: In the latter, subsequently reported divorces are counted in the last year that has not yet been completed. In this record they are counted in the year of the divorce date..Source: Statistics on the natural population movement (BEVNAT) of the Federal Statistical Office (BFS).

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In 2023, the divorce rate in Germany lay at about 35.74 percent. The highest divorce rate at almost 52 percent was recorded in 2005. Since then, divorce rates have ranged between 30 and 50 percent. The divorce rate compares the number of marriages with the number of divorces in the same period under review. Accordingly, the divorce rate does not provide any information about the ‘divorce risk’ of a particular marriage cohort, as the divorces do not relate to a marriage year.

The global divorce services market is experiencing significant growth, driven by rising divorce rates, increased awareness of mental health, and the growing accessibility of online therapy and counseling platforms. The market, segmented by application (male and female) and type of service (divorce counseling, evaluation, and others), shows strong potential for expansion. While precise figures for market size and CAGR are not provided, a reasonable estimation based on industry reports and growth trends in related sectors suggests a market valued in the billions, experiencing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 8-10% between 2025 and 2033. This growth is propelled by several key factors, including increased societal acceptance of divorce, higher levels of stress and relationship conflict in modern life, and the increasing affordability and convenience of online divorce support resources. The convenience and anonymity offered by online platforms like ReGain, BetterHelp, and Calmerry are significantly contributing to market expansion, especially among younger demographics. The market's regional distribution reflects global trends in divorce rates and economic development. North America and Europe currently hold the largest market shares, due to higher disposable incomes and established mental healthcare infrastructure. However, rapid growth is anticipated in Asia-Pacific regions driven by increasing urbanization, changing social norms, and rising awareness around mental well-being. Restraints to market growth include the stigma associated with divorce in some cultures, the lack of access to affordable services in developing countries, and concerns regarding data privacy and security in online platforms. The ongoing evolution of technology and the integration of artificial intelligence within mental health platforms are likely to further shape the market landscape, offering personalized and efficient services. Future growth will be determined by the expansion of affordable, accessible, and culturally sensitive services across diverse regions.

Acts of civil status of Klaipėda district. Birth and death rates, as well as marriage/divorce rates in Klaipėda district