Over 100,000 marriages ended in divorce two years ago, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed.
In 2023, 100,787 opposite-sex couples divorced in England and Wales, up from 78,759 the previous year. The ONS reported that 2022 may have been artificially low due to the transition to the new no-fault divorce system part way through the year.
Despite the spike, the number is still the third lowest since 1971. However, marriage rates are now almost half what they were fifty years ago.
Children
On 6 April 2022, the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 came into force. Under this law, couples can divorce in six months without having to give a reason and a spouse cannot contest the decision. The 2023 figures reflect the first full year of the legislation being in effect.
Over a quarter of divorces were processed under the previous legislation, with the most cited reason being “unreasonable behaviour”. The number of cases granted under the old legislation is expected to gradually decrease.
Campaign group Coalition for Marriage (C4M) lamented that each divorce represents “another family torn in two, with children in many cases now facing a future of absent parents and broken homes”.
Adultery
Prior to no-fault divorce, anyone wanting to divorce their spouse had to prove their marriage had irretrievably broken down through either adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion, or separation for two years with their spouse’s consent, or five years without.
The new law includes a statutory 20-week period that the Ministry of Justice describes as an opportunity for couples “to reflect and turn back”. However, divorces on separation grounds that would have required two or five years can now be much quicker.
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