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Marriages (Do’s) and Divorces (Don’ts) in Australia

Jan 8, 2016

Carr & Co

marriage and divorce statistics

marriage and divorce statisticsThe Australian Bureau of Statistics has released data for its publication 3310.0 Marriages and Divorces in Australia 2014.

Did you know?

  • The most popular date for couples to marry in 2014 was 12 April.
  • Of the 121,197 marriages registered in Australia in 2014, Ministers of religion. conducted about 26% of the marriages, and civil celebrants about 74%. Compare those percentages to data from 1994: of the 111,174 marriages registered, 56.9% of the marriage ceremonies were solemnized by ministers of religion and just 43.1% by civil celebrants.
  • In 2014, the median age for a bride was 29.6 years and for a groom 31.5 years. 20 years ago, the median ages of brides and grooms were 25.1 years and 27.2 years respectively.
  • Our marriages are slightly longer over the past 20 years: from 10.9 years to 12.0 years.
  • The divorce rate has fallen from 2.7[i] in 1994 to 2.0 in 2014.
  • The proportion of divorces involving children has dropped from 52.4% in 1994 to 47% in 2014.
  • Wives continue to apply for divorces more often than husbands, although over the past 20 years there has been a large increase in the number of joint applications for divorce, such that they now exceed applications made solely by spouses.
  • The median age at divorce has risen from 39.7 years to 45.2 years for men, and from 36.8 years to 42.5 years for women.

[i] per 1,000 resident population.