Australian Marriage and Divorce

In 2005, 109,000 new marriages were registered in Australia. This was equivalent to 5.4 marriages for every 1,000 people in the population. This rate has been in an overall drop since 1986 when there were 7.2 marriages per 1,000 people. Over the same period, the crude divorce rate has remained relatively unchanged with 2.6 divorces for every 1,000 people in 2005 and 2.5 divorces per 1,000 people in 1986. The greatest annual number of divorces occurred in 2001 when there were 55,300 divorces recorded. This peak has been followed by recent declines, with 52,400 divorces in 2005. As well as marrying less, Australians are tending to marry later than in the past. In 1986, the median age at first marriage for men was 25.6 years, increasing to 30.0 years in 2005. For women, the median age at first marriage increased from 23.5 years in 1986 to 28.0 years in 2005. People are also divorcing at older ages. In 2005, the median age of divorcing men was 43.5 years, compared with 37.5 years in 1986, while for women the median age in 2005 was 40.8 compared with 34.7 years in 1986. The decline in marriage rates and the increase in divorce rates has led to a decrease in the proportion of the population that is formally married. In 1986, 60% of the population aged 15 years and over were married; by 2001 this figure had decreased to 55%. Conversely , the figure for the population aged 15 years and over who were never married increased from 29% in 1986 to 32% in 2001.