The Harbour Family Law Podcast
The Harbour Family Law Podcast offers compassionate, expert guidance on navigating divorce, separation, and co-parenting.
Hosted by the firm’s directors, Katy, Fiona and Nicky, each episode breaks down family law into clear, accessible advice; from first meetings to child arrangements and financial settlements to mediation and collaborative
You'll hear from legal experts and experienced professionals sharing practical insights to support your emotional and legal well-being.
Whether you're facing the early stages of separation or resolving long-standing issues, this podcast is a trusted guide through the family law process.
The Harbour Family Law Podcast
How Many Marriages End in Divorce?
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In this episode, Nicky Howarth and Hannah Holdaway unpack divorce statistics in England and Wales and have some good news about the commonly quoted claim that “one in two marriages end in divorce”.
The episode explores why divorce rates have fallen in recent decades, how long marriages typically last and explores the idea of the “seven-year itch”.
Nicky and Hannah cover the the introduction of the no-fault divorce in 2022 and how this has changed the legal process by removing the need to assign blame, helping couples separate more constructively, especially where children are involved.
If you are considering separation, Harbour Family Law can help.
Morning, Hannah. Today for Harbour Family Laws Podcast, we're going to be talking about how many marriages end in divorce in England and Wales. So we thought it would be an interesting topic to look at because there's been that sort of rumour that's been in existence for many, many years, probably even before I started practicing, is that one and two marriages end in divorce.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that kind of like 50% of marriages end up with a divorce. Absolutely. But but the reality is actually a bit more complicated than that, isn't it? Yes, and slightly more positive, actually. So the recent statistics that we've got from the Office of National Statistics seem to say that actually it's not 50%, it's 42%, so a little bit more positive. So it's still significant, but it's not what people commonly talk about. And interestingly, it seems that over the last couple of decades rates have actually been going down. So the figure from 1994 was that per 1,000 married men and women, 13.5 would be divorced. And till 2023, that's gone down from 13.5 to about 8.5. So a reduction over the last couple of decades. And it translates roughly into about 110,000 new divorce applications each year going through the family courts.
SPEAKER_01Right. And I think when we were looking at it, we were saying that actually that's very um similar for dissolution of civil partners. So historically, um same-sex couples weren't able to get married and therefore they'd enter into a civil partnership. And the the dissolution, which is essentially the same as the divorce rate for those relationships, was was very similar, albeit slightly higher rates for same-sex female couples, interestingly.
SPEAKER_00Yes, exactly. Um but before we sort of start celebrating about divorces going down, there are some reasons, aren't there?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think one of the big reasons that divorce rates seem to be falling is actually fewer people are getting married. So it kind of follows that if there are fewer people getting married that they're going to be fewer divorces.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And so just talk us through. For the people whose marriage does sadly end in a divorce, how long on average do those marriages tend to last?
SPEAKER_01So the good news is that not many divorces happen in that initial couple of years. Um so essentially when people are still in the honeymoon period, there are not many divorces. Uh, one of the reasons for that could be that actually you can't get divorced in the first year of marriage. So that is going to have an impact on the fact that there are very few divorces then. And statistically, actually, it's between the sort of four and eight-year mark when most people get divorced. So um, so the kind of seven-year-itch probably does stand true that that seems to be about the peak of people getting divorced. And actually, um 50% of divorces will happen. Um, you know, the latest statistics, 50% of divorces will happen in the first sort of 10 to 12 years of marriage. So um the good news is if you've made it to sort of 10 years, you've got a more than 50% chance of not getting divorced. Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_00Um and there's been some change in the legal process in recent years, hasn't there? Yes. Significant change in how the actual divorce application process works.
SPEAKER_01Yes, absolutely. Um, so um before uh 2022, you got divorced on the basis that the marriage had irretrievably broken down and you you had to show that the marriage had irretrievably broken down. Whereas now you can simply get divorced on the basis that um that you you know you no longer want to be married and the marriage has has broken down. You don't need to show that there has been unreasonable behaviour, adultery, and so on.
SPEAKER_00And so with that kind of old fault-based system, people either had to prove one of those facts, the unreasonable behaviour will be adultery, or they had to wait out a period of separation, didn't they? Um and actually looking at what people were telling us were their reasons for wanting to start a divorce application. People were then having to, if they were relying on unreasonable behaviour, list different types of behaviour that meant they didn't feel they could carry on living with their partner. And that covered a lot of things, didn't it? It covered all sorts of things like lack of intimacy, trust breaking down, people just feeling like they'd grown apart, no more emotional support.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes there'd be kind of one Yeah, a catalyst or adultery or something had happened. But yeah, often it was just the probably the churn of everyday life and people growing apart, um, people changing as they grow older in terms of what their expectations are. But but what we were saying is quite interesting is that that historically, so before 2022, we could analyse and say, well, why, how, how, and why do most marriages end? And statistically, the most common ground that was cited in a divorce petition was unreasonable behaviour. So, you know, often that might simply be unhappiness in the marriage. But actually, post-2022, we we can't do that anymore because you simply say the marriage is broken down, you don't have to give a reason. And so it's much harder to analyse that. But I don't know, what what have you found with kind of the cases that come through your door, Hannah, in terms of that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I find people are definitely still giving me the same sorts of reasons. Yeah. Um, it's just that we're not listing them, setting them out in proceeding. And it was kind of that change was a long time coming, wasn't it? And lots of people pushing for that change, thinking that if you started off the whole process without having to list some allegations or start off in a way that was quite adversarial just through the way it was set up, that actually you could set everything else off on a slightly more constructive footing. And that was obviously really important to people, especially when there are children involved, or just want to keep a more constructive relationship with each other.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, absolutely. If people are getting separated, the last thing you want to do is literally be sitting there doing a list of all my top ten things I you know, top ten things I hate about you, essentially. And you you that's not a great way to start things off. Um what people talk about it being really difficult to receive, you know, in black documents. Yeah, yeah. So it's been a helpful change, but it does mean statistically, when we're looking at sort of the statistics around marriage, it's much harder to to analyse things, isn't it? Um another thing we were talking about, Hannah, was um it was second marriages and what what the position is there, which we were both really surprised around.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so there's statistics that show if you have been divorced and you go into a second marriage, not necessarily actually any more likely, in fact, probably less likely that your second marriage will end in divorce. So something a little bit more positive.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and we've both found that quite counterintuitive. I think, you know, you you see some Hollywood stars, perhaps during my age, someone like Elizabeth Taylor, who had many husbands, um, and you you kind of hear anecdotally of people who've perhaps had two, three wives or husbands. And so I think sort of my perception would have been that if people get divorced once, they're perhaps more likely to get divorced again. But in fact, the opposite is true.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, exactly. So actually, if people are going into a second marriage, they might have a bit more age and wisdom experience, they might be more financially secure, they might be knowing what they expect out of a relationship, or being with each other about what they expect. Yeah, so absolutely all of that time and experience does seem like it feeds in and it really counts for something.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, and and they might have, I mean, learnt from their mistakes, which could which could mean one of two things. It could mean learnt from their mistakes in terms of who they married in the first place, you know, they might not have married the right person, or it could be that they've learnt from the way they behaved in that marriage and they have improved the way they behave in in a new relationship, and therefore that second marriage is is more likely to be successful. I guess it could be yeah, uh either or.
unknownAbsolutely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And can you talk as because we were looking at how our rates in this country in other parts of the world?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's interesting. So um we're pretty much average. So if you look across the whole world, we kind of sit in the middle in terms of divorce rates. So we're not not one of the highest, but we're equally not one of the lowest. Um, and so we were saying that there's some countries that have higher rates. So, for example, the United States, um, Russia, uh, Belgium was another one that had really, well, not really high, but higher than than our divorce rates. And then umes that had really low divorce rates. Um, I think there was Chile, uh, Peru, Vietnam, um, and actually quite a few countries in South America had had really low divorce rates.
SPEAKER_00Interesting. And possibly in countries where there are some particular kind of religious or cultural reasons, there might actually be barriers to divorce making it much harder.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. There's some social stigma around it. Absolutely. And I think that was sort of what the I think the statistics bore out that often in countries where it's more socially acceptable to get divorced and where it's easier to get divorced, there's going to be a higher divorce rate. But in countries where um it's socially more difficult and less accepted to get divorced, and where legally there might be quite significant bars to getting divorced, then inevitably um the rates are going to be lower there. So what what should we take away from today then, Hannah? So firstly, it seems like that 50% statistically people quote isn't quite accurate, actually.
SPEAKER_00We're looking at 42% rates, so a bit more positive. Um but that could just be that fewer people are getting married. It could be, yeah, again, because those rates are declining. So yes, exactly. It might just be changes over time that what people are doing. Um and then also the the second marriage point about people not necessarily having so many divorces if they go into further marriages. So and a bit sort of a positive note to consider.
SPEAKER_01Um so I think that concludes our podcast for today. Um, if you are in that 42% that are getting divorced or are thinking about getting divorced, uh please do contact Harbor Family Law and we'd be happy to have an initial free discussion and um see how we can assist you.