Number of Divorces

IBISWorld forecasts the number of divorces to rise by 3.0% in 2024-25 to 52,846. Climbing consumer and business confidence, supported by rising discretionary incomes, has enabled separated couples to afford legal fees surrounding divorce, boosting the rate of divorce in the current year.

According to the ABS, in 2023 (latest data available), there was one divorce for every 1.4 marriages that were registered. The crude divorce rate in Australia, which is the number of divorces each year per 1,000 people, has remained stable at 2.3 over the past decade. The median duration of marriage to divorce was 13.0 years in 2023, having risen from 11.8 years in 2001. The median age at divorce has also risen over the ten years through 2022-23 to 47.1 years for males and 44.1 years for females. This is a symptom of people getting married later, with the median age at marriage reaching 29.9 for men and 27.6 for women. The reasons for this are primarily cultural and economic with more people focusing on careers, choosing to live together without being married and a general decline in the traditional expectations of marriage whereby people are opting for more individual autonomy.