Divorces filed between 2016 to 2017

You asked

Please provide the following information;

• How many divorces were filed for in the UK from 2016 to 2017 and 2017 to present?

• Can you break down the above information by major cities and regions (Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England.)?

• What reasons were given for filing for divorce?

• How many of the divorces filed for were granted and how many were ‘quickie’ divorces granted by the courts?

We said

Thank you for your request.

The divorce statistics for the United Kingdom and its constituent countries are published in our Vital Statistics: Population and Health Reference Tables at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/vitalstatisticspopulationandhealthreferencetables

The 2016 and 2017 UK figures will be collated in September - October 2018.

The 2016 divorce statistics for England and Wales are available at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/divorce/datasets/divorcesinenglandandwales

The fact proven at divorce is provided in Table 5.

We are unable to produce divorce statistics for England and Wales by area of residence – divorce data provided to us by the courts does not contain information on the area of residence of the parties. Information on the location of the court is available from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in Family court statistics quarterly. The court location does not accurately reflect where parties lived either before or after separation. The divorce courts were also centralised in 2015 to 11 main divorce centres throughout England and Wales.

We only receive divorce records for divorces which are granted in England and Wales. The MoJ publish some information on the number of divorce petitions and the number of divorces granted in their Family Court statistics quarterly publication (table 12) at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly

We do not hold any information on the time taken for a divorce petition to progress to decree absolute; some information is however published by the Ministry of Justice in Family Court statistics (see table 14).

Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency publish divorce statistics for Northern Ireland at:

https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/births-deaths-and-marriages/divorces

Scottish Government publish divorce statistics for Scotland at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/civil-judicial-statistics/