Divorce rate drops to 30-year low as couples decide marriage is for life

The share of those who ended their marriages dropped dramatically for a second year running, according to official figures released today.

The fall in divorce rates comes against a background of the plummeting popularity of marriage itself. Far fewer people are now choosing to tie the knot and the number of married people in the country has fallen to around half the population.

Scroll down for more...

Experts clashed over the reasons for the decline in divorce, with some lawyers pointing to the influence of highly-publicised big-money divorce settlements. But some analysts suggested that the simple decline in the numbers marrying was affecting divorce levels.

The figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 12.2 of every 1,000 married people in England and Wales were divorced last year, a fall of seven per cent on the 2005 rate of 13.1. It was the lowest divorce rate since 1984.

Divorce rates fell for men and women across all age groups.

A breakdown showed that there was a fall of 6.5 per cent from 141,750 in 2005 to 132,562 in 2006. Although numbers are falling because of the drop of overall numbers of married people, this is the smallest figure for divorces in 30 years.

An average marriage is now lasting 11.6 years, the ONS breakdown showed. The average age at which a man is divorced has risen to 43.4 years, and for women the typical age of divorce is 40.9.

There was a divorce boom in Scotland, were the number of divorces rose by 20 per cent to 13,014.

But this was caused by a liberalisation of divorce law north of the border. New rules which allowed those separated to have a divorce much earlier led to a rush to finalise divorces among those who had been waiting for a final legal end to their marriages.

There was speculation that high divorce settlements may have dissuaded men from divorce. Spectacular recent cases include those of Beverley Charman, awarded £48 million of her husband John's fortune in May, and Melissa Miller, who won £5 million of her husband Alan's £30 million wealth even though her marriage lasted only three years and there were no children.

But some analysts said that if high settlements had put men off divorce, they would have encouraged women in favour of divorce.

Robert Whelan of the Civitas think tank said: 'High divorce settlements are a reason for men not to get married, not a reason for them to steer clear of divorce.'

The 11.6 year average duration of a marriage compares with an average period of three years before a cohabitation breaks up or the couple marry.