(Census 2001)

• Almost half of all marriages in England and Wales will end in divorce.

• At least one child under 16 is affected in 53% of all cases, with nearly two-thirds of them being under 11.

• Since 1997 average age of divorce has risen from 40.2 to 43.7 years for men and from 37.7 to 41.2 years for women, partly due to the rise in age at marriage.

• The highest rate of divorce is among men and women in their late twenties.

Source: www.statistics.gov.uk

Did you know….?

That there are 21.7m married people in England  &  Wales  2008: ONS population estimates  (Nov 2009)

There are 132,361 divorce petitions in England & Wales 2009 http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/court-stats-quarterly-q1-jan-mar-2010.pdf

In cases of private law 133,780 children were involved in 2009 England & Wales  http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/court-stats-quarterly-q1-jan-mar-2010.pdf

(Note:  *Figures relate to the number of children subject to each application. Siblings are all counted individually. The actual number of children involved will be lower than recorded due to multiple counting. If multiple applications for one child are made, these are all counted separately. The actual number of cases in the system will be less as multiple orders and siblings in a family may be dealt with in one case)

Mediation can be a cheaper and less acrimonious alternative to the court process:

When the requirement to consider mediation was made mandatory for the legally aided sector, the number of publicly funded mediations rose year on year from approximately 400 in 1997 to over 14,300 in 2009.

We also know that the success rate of publicly funded mediation starts is approximately 70% (full and partial success).

(Ministry of Justice)

pdf National Statistics 45% divorce rate: 45-divorce-rate

Our research suggests the following:
That new singles will spend more on financial and wellbeing services than their married counterparts

An ongoing survey by professional service directory ‘CertainShops – Professionals Online’ supports anecdotal evidence that, following a relationship break up people are more likely to buy new properties, update their wills and insurances, and spend money on themselves.

Results to date show that in the three years following the break up of a relationship:

26.5% rented a property more than once
36.7% bought a new property
51.0% went on a foreign holiday more than once
27.3% joined a gym
20.0% changed their appearance
35.3% changed their job

Financial advice and legal advice were considered ‘definitely important’ for people going through a relationship break up (53.1% and 50% respectively) with well-being advice also as a definite at 45.5%.  The highest score for ‘definitely important’ was 82.8% for ‘people to listen to them sympathetically’.

Nearly one in four (22.9% or 2,672,000) dependent children in England and Wales live in lone-parent families, 91.2% of which are headed by the mother. More than 1 in 10 dependent children live in a step-family (1,284,000). The majority (65%), though, live with both natural parents.
Great Britain. Office for National Statistics. (2002) Social focus in brief : children (PDF). London: Office for National Statistics.

Britain has 2.7 divorces per 1,000 of the population, compared with a European average of 1.8, according to Government figures in the study.

Italy had the lowest rate at 0.6 divorces, while Spain registered 0.9, France 2.0, Austria 2.2, Germany 2.3 and Finland alongside Britain on 2.7.

The high divorce rate, combined with the growth of cohabitation and illegitimate births, resulted in Britain recording the highest proportion of children living in one-parent families.

More than a quarter of children in Britain now live in single-parent families, compared with a European average of 14 per cent. It is six per cent in Greece, 12 in Austria, 13 in France, 14 in Germany and almost 15 per cent in Belgium.

(Broken Heart’s Report 2002)

the average age at divorce continues to rise, from 40.9 for men and 38.4 for women in 1999 up to 41.3 and 38.8 respectively in 2000.

(ONS)

Go to press pack?