7 interesting statistics on marriages and divorces across the country and the world

1. The number of divorces in the Czech Republic has been decreasing in recent years

Regardless of widespread pessimism, the number of divorces has been declining here for a long time, whereas, on the other hand, in the last five years, the marriage rate has been increasing and therefore there are more and more marriages being concluded in the end. See the graph below for the exact numbers of concluded and terminated marriages per 1,000 inhabitants. If we aggregate the data from the years 2000 – 2017, the average number of divorces per year is 29,443. Most of them were in 2004 – about 33,000, and the least in 2016 – almost 25,000.

… but there is still room for improvement

The last few positive years have not been enough to improve much in terms of our long-term unflattering position among Europe’s divorce high achievers. We still have room for improvement. It is interesting that even more divorces happen in traditionally Catholic countries such as Spain or Portugal. The internet is full of assumptions as to why this is the case, and most often people are guessing an economic crisis that results in young people getting married less or moving out of the country, or a rapidly growing number of marriages which fall apart after fifteen and more years.

2. Marriages and divorces of foreigners in the Czech Republic

In the number of marriages and divorces of foreigners some similar tendencies can be distinguished as in the graph above: the marriage decline from 2007 onwards and the subsequent optimistic trend of the last four years, when marriages were increasing and divorces were getting less and less. However, this applies only to mixed marriages, i.e. usually the marriages when one of the couple has Czech citizenship. In the long term, it is true here that women marry foreigners more often than men marry foreigners. In recent years, however, it seems that this gap is slowly blurring. Marriages and divorces, where both persons are foreigners, are not frequent and their dynamics are governed by their own logic.

What are the nationalities of foreigners who are getting married or divorced in the Czech Republic? Immediately after the Slovak nationality, which is not surprisingly the first, Vietnam, Ukraine, Tunisia, Great Britain and Germany prevail among men. For women, it is Ukraine, Vietnam, Russia, Poland and Belarus.

3. International marriage – where are they common and where are rather rare?

12% of marriages in Europe are mixed, i.e. in which each spouse is of a different nationality. Typically, one of the spouses is “home” in the country where the family lives and the other is a foreigner. Such bonds are the most popular in Luxembourg and Switzerland (about 18% of all marriages). They are least popular in Romania, where they do not even reach 1%. In comparison, the Czech Republic is rather close to the lower limit with the number of international marriages below 5%. Data source: Eurostat, 2008 – 2010.

4. It is not won even after ten years of marriage

When does a marriage run out of breath most often? Between the 10^th – 14^th year of coexistence, i.e. the age when the spouses are usually between 35 and 39 years old. So, it is not won even after ten years together, quite the opposite. However, almost half of divorced persons get married again – most often within 3 years from the divorce.

5. The more children, the fewer divorces

Statistics show that childless couples get divorced most often by far, it is even more than 40% of divorces. They are followed by couples with one or two children. Divorces fall sharply in marriages with more children – from 3 children, the number of divorces drops to 2.9%. According to the OECD, a similar score applies to a large part of the world. So the data confirm what we often hear from psychologists and marriage counsellors: children are one of the binders that hold relationships together.

6. Children in marriage and outside marriage

As for the number of children born outside marriage, the Czech Republic reaches almost 50%. So it is therefore in the top fifteen in terms of the children born this way in European countries. However, it was not always this way. As the tables of Eurostat show, even in the 1990s, Czechs were significantly more conservative about this issue. For example, the Italians and Spaniards have undergone a similar dramatic change. On the other hand, the Nordic and Baltic states led by Iceland typically have a higher number of children born outside marriage.

7. Why do couples get divorced?

Reasons for divorce are recorded by the Czech Statistical Office quite simply – it records categories with which courts operate during divorces. In the first place for both genders is the Difference of natures, opinions and interests. If we leave out the meaningless category Other causes and the Court did not find any fault, the second and third place are held by infidelity and alcoholism for men and infidelity and ill-considered marriage for women.