New divorce stats for 2023 are out today from the Office for National Statistics. These figures should calm the nerves of those who worried that the new ‘no fault’ law, introduced in April 2022, would see a boom in easy divorce.
There is a small increase in divorce NUMBERS in 2023 but this looks mostly or entirely due to a rebound from the post-pandemic court delays that saw numbers well below normal in 2022. Confirmation of this comes from Ministry of Justice figures showing that divorce applications, ie the start of the process, have continued their long term downward trend in both 2023 and 2024.
Our immediate analysis – because we have a fancy spreadsheet that can do this – calculates that divorce RATES for those completing their first decade of marriage has actually FALLEN. The first decade of marriage is where almost all of the variation since the 1970s has taken place, starting with the huge surge during the 70s and 80s, followed by the equally huge fall in the 90s, 00s and 10s.
In short, divorce rates are now the lowest they have been since 1970. There is no sign of a boom in divorce rates and we are pleased that the divorce process is now more civilised and kinder.
For more data and a bit more of an explanation, I have written a short note here.
Harry Benson, 2nd July 2025
Harry’s comment for media: “There has been a small increase in the number of divorces, but this is due to two factors, firstly some divorces coming through more quickly because of the shortened time scale and the secondly the courts clearing up the Covid backlog. Once both are taken into account, the change in the rate is less than many of the fluctuations we have seen in recent years. In short, there are no signs whatsoever of a rise in divorce rates. In fact these figures as our analysis shows confirm divorces are still at levels we last saw back in the 1970s and with a drop in divorces for those married for ten years or less, suggests the trend of falling divorce rates looks set to continue. So this is good news on two fronts. Marriages are the strongest in 50 years and the legal system is now kind and sensible to those for whom it doesn’t work out.” He added: “These figures are also a repudiation of those who prophesied a massive increase in the divorce rate, by removing blame from the divorce system – Those fears were unfounded as many campaigners, like Marriage Foundation and family lawyers Resolution said at the time.”
Sir Paul Coleridge comment: “At the time of our campaign there was significant and noisy opposition from those who believed that making divorce as horrible as possible encouraged couples to grin and bear it. For those of us who had lived for decades with a deeply flawed and dishonest system and were determined to consign the system to the scrap heap of legal history, we knew that this was a panic stricken and groundless concern. The new non-fault-based system allows couples to avoid needless name-calling from the off and this is surely for the benefit of the children stuck in the middle. Both the Times and Marriage Foundation, as well as the family lawyers association Resolution, are entitled to at least a soft pat on the back for persevering and bringing about a significant reform which perhaps counter intuitively is very good for promoting marriage amongst the current marriage-shy generation”.