Annual divorce numbers and rates, by duration of marriage, sex, to whom granted, and reason.

Ages of husband and wife at marriage, and analyses of the percentage of marriages ending in divorce by year of marriage and anniversary, and proportions of men and women who had ever divorced by year of birth and age.

In 2019 the divorce rate in England and Wales was 8.9 divorces per thousand married couples, which was significantly higher than the rate in 2018 which was 7.5. The Divorce rate in England and Wales has been falling steadily since a rate of 13.3 was recorded in 2003 and 2004. In the last available data for Scotland in 2008, the divorce rate was 11.1.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) is a longitudinal birth cohort study, following a nationally representative sample of over 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1970. Cohort members have been sureveyed throughout their childhood and adult lives, mapping their individual trajectories and creating a unique resource for researchers. It is one of very few longitudinal studies following people of this generation anywhere in the world.

Since 1970, cohort members have been surveyed at ages 5, 10, 16, 26, 30, 34, 38, 42 and 46. Featuring a range of objective measures and rich self-reported data, BCS70 covers an incredible amount of ground and can be used in research on many topics Evidence from BCS70 has illuminated important issues for our society across five decades. Key findings include how reading for pleasure matters for children's cognitive development, why grammar schools have not reduced social inequalities, and how childhood experiences can impact on mental health in mid-life. Every day researchers from across the scientific community are using this important study to make new connections and discoveries.

BCS70 is run by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), a research centre in the UCL Institute of Education, which is part of University College London. The content of BCS70 studies, including questions, topics and variables can be explored via the CLOSER Discovery website.

How to access genetic and/or bio-medical sample data from a range of longitudinal surveys:
For information on how to access biomedical data from BCS70 that are not held at the UKDS, see the CLS Genetic data and biological samples webpage.

Secure Access datasets
Secure Access versions of BCS70 have more restrictive access conditions than versions available under the standard End User Licence (EUL).

1970 British Cohort Study: Partnership Histories, 1986-2016:
Data on live-in relationships lasting one month or more have been collected in all BCS70 sweeps from sweep 6 (age 30) as well as data on current live-in relationship at sweep 5 (age 23). The purpose of the Partnership Histories dataset is to merge all data on live-in relationships in successive sweeps into one longitudinal dataset.

The focus of the questions asked at each sweep are about the relationship start date; whether married/became civil partner (sweep 8 and later) to this partner and if so the marriage/civil partnership dates; whether still together with this partner and if not the date that the relationship ended; how the relationship ended; if relevant whether divorced and divorce dates; the sex, marital status and age at start of relationship of the partner.

For the fourth edition (March 2021), both data files have been updated to include partnership data from the latest BCS70 data sweep (2016). Following Sweep 10 (2016, age 46), longitudinal datasets have been streamlined by removing cases which have never participated in any main sweep survey and are no longer being issued.

• BCS70 Partnership dataset: One record is recorded for each partnership. Cohabitation transformed into marriage is recorded as two separate partnerships
• BCS70 Partner dataset: One record is recorded for each partner. A cohabitation which has transformed into marriage is treated as one partner