LONDON, June 21 (Xinhua) -- A study of divorces in England and Wales revealed Wednesday that the highest number of couples going their separate ways was in the 40 to 44-year age group.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has carried out a survey of all divorces recorded in 2015, the last full year for which full details are available. It shows there were 101,055 divorces of heterosexual couples in 2015, a decrease of 9.1 percent compared with 2014 and a decline of 34 percent from a recent peak in 2003.
The average age at divorce in 2015 was in the mid 40s for men and women, putting the forty-something age group at the top of the divorce chart. This average age figure has increased every year between 1985 and 2015, rising by over eight years for both men and women.
Nicola Haines from the Vital Statistics Outputs Branch at ONS said, "For the first time, the figures also include the first full year of figures of divorces of same sex couples, showing there were 22 divorces in 2015; marriages, including 12 female and 10 male couples who divorced. These figures have only been available in England and Wales since March 2014."
Unreasonable behavior was the most common grounds for divorce among same sex couples, which includes having a sexual relationship with someone else, said ONS. Adultery, a common ground for divorce, is only legally recognized when it is committed in heterosexual relationships.
In the same year that the 101,055 people divorced, 248,000 couples tied the knot.
ONS said the fall in divorces may be due to the increasing number of couples choosing to live together rather than enter into marriage.
The divorce rate among opposite sex couples in 2015 was just over half of the rate recorded in 1993, according to ONS figures.
"Changes in attitudes to cohabitation as an alternative to marriage or prior to marriage, particularly at younger ages, are likely to have been a factor affecting the decrease in divorce rates since 2003. Levels of cohabitation increased over this period, while the married population declined," said ONS.
It added that age at marriage is likely to be closely linked to the risk of divorce, with those marrying in their teens and early twenties being at greater risk of divorce. The figures also show that the average age at marriage has increased steadily since 1970 for both men and women.
