Divorces at 30-year low

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A total of 132,562 couples formally split last year, a drop of 6.5% on 2005 and the third annual drop in succession, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The figure, which excludes Scotland and Northern Ireland, is the lowest since 1977 when there were 129,053 divorces.

The overall provisional divorce rate for England and Wales - calculated by proportion rather than total - also fell to its lowest level for 22 years, to 12.2 for every thousand married men and women.

It was the second annual fall in succession, with the divorce rate down 7% on 2005 of 13.1%.

The figures show that the idea of the seven-year itch may be overly pessimistic - the average failed marriage now lasts as long as 11.6 years, unchanged since 2005.

People in their late 20s had the highest divorce rates - with 26 divorces per thousand married men aged 25-29 and 27.3 among women in the same age group - but overall the average age of people divorcing was higher, at 40.9 for women and 43.4 for men.

The number of second-time divorcees has also doubled in last 25 years. In 1981 just over one in 10 people getting divorced had already had a previous marriage dissolved. Last year that figure was one in five.

Across the UK as a whole, the number of divorces fell by a more modest 4.5% to 148,141 in 2006 from 155,052 in 2005. But in Scotland there was a near-20% surge in the number of divorces, up from 10,940 in 2005 to 13,014 last year.

The ONS said the hike could be the result of a sharp cut in the required separation period which came into effect in May last year.