Divorce Statistics UK 2023

Over the past 50 years, exactly one third of marriages have ended in divorce. We've analysed Office for National statistics data to find out how divorce rates have changed over the past 20 years and how they vary by age group. Read on to find out the average age of men and women when they get divorced, and the worst years to have gotten married according to divorce stats. To read about how much a divorce will cost, see our article on the average cost of a divorce.

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Divorce Rate

The average overall divorce rate in England and Wales is 31.8%, based on all marriages over the past 50+ years between 1964 to 2019. However, the rate changes according to how many years a couple has been together.

For example, of couples who married 50 years ago in 1968, 35.3% had ended in divorce by 2018. In contrast, 43.6% of those marrying in 1988 had divorced by 2018. And 18.9% of couples married in 2008 had divorced within the first ten years by 2018. (This is down from 20% the year before, so younger couples seem to be more likely to stay together now.)

Cumulative Divorce Rates2018
50 years of marriage35.3%
40 years of marriage42%
30 years of marriage43.6%
20 years of marriage36.5%
10 years of marriage18.9%
Overall33.3%
Chart showing cumulative divorce rates by year of marriage
Marriages in 1987 have the highest cumulative divorce rate

Changing Divorce Rates

The divorce rate has certainly changed over the years, especially for longer marriages. The chart below shows how divorce rates for those married 10, 20 and 30 years has changed over the past 30 years. As you can see, there's been an improvement in the proportion of marriages failing by 10 years (now below 20%), but there's a much higher proportion of marriages failing by 30 years (32.7% in 1998 vs. 43.6% in 2018).

Chart showing how divorce rates have changed
Divorce rates over the past 25 years

Number of Divorces

In 2020, there were 103,592 divorces in England and Wales—102,438 were opposite-sex divorces and 1,154 were of same-sex couples. This is a decrease of 37% since 1993, the year with the largest number of divorces, when a whopping 165,018 marriages ended by divorce.

Stats on Number of Divorces
Year with the most divorces1993 (165,018 divorces)
Number of divorces 2020103,592 (102,438 opposite sex, 1,154 same sex)
Percentage drop in divorces from 1995 to 2020 (25 years)33.4%
Chart showing number of UK divorces over time
The number of couples getting divorced is steadily declining

However, that's not the whole story. While the number of divorces has been steadily dropping, so has the number of couples getting married. So it's not necessarily the case that couples are getting better at staying together. The year with the highest number of marriages was 1972, when 426,241 couples said, "I do." By 2019, that number had dropped to 219,850—a decrease of 48%.

Chart showing number of UK marriages and divorces over time
The number of couples getting divorced is declining, but so is the number of marriages

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  • Divorce Rates by Age

    Divorce rates for young people in particular have dropped since 1993, the year with the highest number of divorces in England and Wales. Around 3% of couples under the age of 35 ended in divorce during 1993—in the year 2019 this number had dropped to around 1%.

    Proportion of marriages ending in divorce in 1993 vs. 2019, by age19932019
    Under 201.1%0.1%
    20 to 243.1%1.0%
    25 to 293.3%1.2%
    30 to 342.9%1.2%
    35 to 392.4%1.2%
    40 to 441.8%1.3%
    45 to 491.3%1.3%
    50 to 540.9%1.0%
    55 to 590.5%0.7%
    60 and over0.1%0.2%

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    Chart showing how divorce rates by age have changed
    The divorce rate for young people in particular has dropped over the past 25 years

    Number of Divorces by Age

    The average age for divorce is 46.4 for men and 43.9 for women. Similarly, those age 45 to 49 years old have the most divorces.

    Number of Divorces by Age, 2019MenWomen
    Under 2021
    20 to 24129413
    25 to 291,9763,470
    30 to 346,2848,169
    35 to 399,26410,571
    40 to 449,67110,241
    45 to 4911,16910,946
    50 to 5410,5239,608
    55 to 597,6546,118
    60 and over8,3225,568
    Chart showing number of UK divorces over time
    The number of couples getting divorced is steadily declining

    Divorces by Previously Divorced People

    A look at opposite-sex divorces shows that in 2019, 7 in 10 divorces were among couples where neither party was previously divorced. In around 1 in 4 divorces, either the man or woman had divorced before. And in 6% of divorces, both people had previously divorced.

    Divorces among the previously divorced
    Only Husband was previously divorced12,84911.9%
    Only Wife was previously divorced12,51011.6%
    Both husband and wife were previously divorced6,1965.8%
    Neither husband nor wife previously divorced76,04470.7%
    Total opposite-sex divorces107,599100%

    Causes of Divorce

    Unreasonable behaviour is the most common cause of divorce in England and Wales, accounting for nearly half of all divorces. In 2019, 46.5% of divorces were caused by unreasonable behaviour. The second most common reason that couples divorce is after a 2 year separation with consent. Adultery was the cause of 10.5% of divorces.

    Cause of Divorce in England and WalesPercent of Divorces
    Unreasonable behaviour46.5%
    2 year Separation with consent26.7%
    5 year Separation (no consent)15.4%
    Adultery10.5%
    Combo (adultery and unreasonable behaviour)0.5%
    Desertion0.5%
    Chart showing major causes of divorce in the UK
    Most divorces result from unreasonable behaviour

    Worst Marriage Years for Divorces?

    Couples who tied the knot in 1987 have the highest cumulative divorce rate, with 44% of these marriages ending in divorce by 2017. However it's not a surprise that the cumulative divorce rate is lower for more recent marriage years, as they've had fewer years of accumulated divorces. Since the cumulative rate so far has peaked for those married in 1987, it's safe to say that the worst year to get married was 1987—if you married before 1988.

    Chart showing cumulative divorce rates by year of marriage
    Marriages in 1987 have the highest cumulative divorce rate

    Another way to measure the worst year for marriages is looking at the average annual divorce rate for each marriage year. This measure is calculated by dividing the cumulative divorce rates in the chart above by the number of years of marriage that have passed. By this measure, those married in 2003 and 2004 have had the highest average divorce rate per year—with 1.97% of people married in 2004, '05 and '06 divorcing each year since their nuptials. So while 1987 first looks like the worst year to get married, it seems that the cumulative divorce rate for those married in '04, '05 and '06 will catch up and perhaps surpass the rate for those married in 1987 given more time.

    Fewer couples divorce in the early years, which is why the chart tails off abruptly for recent marriages.

    Chart showing average annual divorce rates by year of marriage
    Marriages in 2004, 2005 and 2006 have the highest average annual divorce rate

    Household Wealth After Divorce

    Of course, when one household splits into two households after a divorce and assets have been divided somehow, the two new divorced households each have less wealth than the combined married household did. No surprise then that divorced households are more likely to have less money, and less likely to have more money. But what do the stats really look like?

    We dug into data from the Wealth and Assets Survey (ONS) to find out. On the lower side of wealth, we found that only 12% of married households have less than £85,000 of total household wealth, but 36.5% of divorced households are in this lower wealth band. In contrast, 50.5% of married households have more than £500,000 of total wealth, but only 26.5% of divorced households have this much.

    Chart showing household wealth after divorce

    Wealth of Men vs Women After Divorce

    While divorces in the UK typically aim for a 50/50 split, the data shows that divorced men generally have more wealth than divorced women. This could be due to a number of factors, from pensions not being included in divorce assets to the fact that men might earn more after the divorce than women. Women are more likely to have taken a career break or work part time in order to care for children, which not only affects their pension savings during the marriage but also impacts the ability to earn at the same rate as their husbands after the divorce.

    As you can see in the table and chart below, divorced women have less wealth overall than divorced men. The table shows the median wealth for divorced people—the 'median' represents the midpoint, that is, half of people have less and half of people have more. The median wealth for divorced women is somewhere between £85,000 and £200,000. The median wealth for divorced men is between £200,000 and £300,000.

    Median Household Wealth of Divorced PeopleLower End of RangeUpper End of Range
    Divorced Women£85,000£200,000
    Divorced Men£200,000£300,000

    The final chart below provides a bit more insight into these figures. As you can see circled in red, divorced woman are noticeably more likely to have wealth in the £20,000 to £85,000 range. In contrast, divorced men are noticeably more likely to have wealth of £1 million or more.

    Chart showing wealth of divorced men and women


    Online divorce help for £199

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    • Rated 'Excellent' 4.6/5 on Trustpilot
    • Over 150,000 couples helped in past 20+ years
    • Get started with only one form
    • This company handles ~5% of all UK divorces

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