Divorce Statistics

Divorce statistics are presented in 3 main ways:

• The total number of divorce petitions per year (the number of people applying for a divorce but not necessarily actually getting divorced.)
• The total number of decrees absolute granted per year (the number of divorces actually granted)
• The divorce rate (the number of divorces each year per thousand married people in the population.)

Divorce statistics must be treated with considerable caution, and assessed against changing legal , financial and social circumstances, if misleading conclusions about the declining  importance or marriage and the family are to be avoided. The increase may simply reflect easier and cheaper divorce procedures enabling the legal termination of already unhappy 'empty shell' marriages (where marital relationship has broken down but no divorce has taken place.) rather than a real increase in marriage breakdowns. It could be that people who in previous years could only separate are now divorcing as legal and financial obstacles are removed.
 
Divorce statistics only show the legal termination of marriages. They do not show:

• The number of people who are separated but not divorced
• The number of people who live in 'empty shell' marriages - many couples may want to split up but are deterred from doing so by their roles as parents.
• How many 'unstable' or 'unhappy' marriages existed before divorce was made easier by changes in the law and changing social attitudes towards divorce.