World Divorce Rates and Trends

Divorce is rising all around the world. There are, however, some places where it is still fairly rare. Generally divorce has become more acceptable but there are trends as to which countries it is more common in. Some geographical areas seem to have higher divorce rates than others while different lifestyles seem to have their impact as well.

India and Sri Lanka are the two countries that have the lowest divorce rates, around one and one and a half per cent respectively. In this part of Asia divorce is still very rare, although it is more common in South East Asia. In India, for example, arranged marriage is still fairly prominent although not as common as it once was. Divorce is not deemed as acceptable as it is in other cultures and therefore many either make a concerted effort to work through relationship problem or remain in unhappy marriages. This is much less common in parts of Europe and North America. There are two ways of looking at this. It might be considered a positive that people do not get divorced as soon as any problems occur in a marriage, something that is considered by many to be a negative of the American family law system, where it can be very easy to obtain a divorce should you wish to. However it could also be considered a negative if people remain in unhappy marriages just because they feel that it is wrong to divorce.

No European countries have anywhere near the same low divorce rates. The lowest divorce rates in Europe are Macedonia and Bosnia with five per cent, nearly five times more than India. Much of the rest of Europe have much higher rates than this. There is a similar trend in North America. Sweden and the United States have the highest divorce rates, both with nearly fifty-five per cent of marriages ending this way. Northern Europe, especially Scandinavia, have particularly high rates. As mentioned above Sweden has the worlds highest, with Finland, Denmark and Norway all at over forty per cent. Other European countries such a Luxembourg, Belgium, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany and France also have a high rate of divorce.
Although many of the statistics in Europe are high the Mediterranean countries do not follow this trend, with Italy, Spain and Greece having less divorces than most of the continent. This could be due to their lifestyles. Much of their culture revolves around the family, with large families often spending a large amount of time together. Due the importance put of family values, divorce may not seem as much of an option to those in these countries.