Separation and Divorce

Editor: Justin Healey
ISBN 978 1 920801 92 2
Year 2008

Price: $20.95

  

Separation and Divorce
Volume 282, Issues in Society

Marriage these days no longer comes with the expectation of “till death do us part”. Australia’s divorce rate has continued to fall since reaching a high in 2001, dipping 2% in 2006 to 51,375. However, despite this slight decrease, a third of relationships are still set to fail, on average after 8.9 years. How does Australian society adapt to such a high proportion of relationship breakdown, and what is being done to reduce the divorce rate in the interests of social and family stability? This book looks at national divorce and separation rates and the personal, financial and social factors which contribute to them. It also examines new approaches to handling the legal process of separation and divorce; issues involved in family breakdown; and guiding children through divorce.

Chapter 1  Divorce Trends in Australia
Divorce rate down again, but it may be a blip; Divorce in decline as marriages last, and last; Divorce trends in Australia; Trends in couple dissolution; Try before you buy is no guard against divorce; Thinking divorce?; A question of fault: A short history of Australian divorce law since 1959; Australian family law; Separation: what to consider; Applying for a divorce; Division of assets, property and financial resources; Divorced baby boomers are living unhappily ever after; The 27-year itch.    

Chapter 2  Families, Separation and Divorce
Marriage, families and separation; Family break-up; 50/50, but the odds are stacked against the children; Shared parenting after divorce; After the break-up; Stepfamilies.

Glossary; Facts and Figures; Additional Resources; Index



FAST FACTS from this volume
  • The divorce rate has continued to fall since reaching a high in 2001, dipping 2% to 51,375 in 2006. But despite the year-to-year decrease in divorces, a third of relationships are still set to fail.
  • Marriages last longer than they did 10 years ago: the average was 8.9 years, up from 7.6 years in 1996. The number of divorces is expected to catch up as these longer marriages eventually end.
  • Women aged 25-29 are most at risk of divorce, with twice as many relationships failing in this bracket. But the median age of divorce has continued to climb – people usually reaching their 40s before separating.
  • The number of divorces in Australia in 2006 represented the fifth annual decrease since a high of 55,330 in 2001. There was a 2.4% decrease in 2002, with the decline in the number of divorces slowing with each successive year to 2005.
  • Divorces in 2006 represented a decrease of 2.1% on the number granted in 1996 (52,466), but a 30.3% increase on the number granted in 1986 (39,417).
  • The rise in the median age at divorce is associated with increasing age at marriage and the increase in the interval between marriage and divorce. In 2006, the median age at marriage for divorcing males was 27.6 years, up from 27.3 years in 2005 and 25.8 years in 1996. For divorcing females, the median age at marriage was 25.1 years in 2006, up from 24.8 years in 2005 and 23.2 years in 1996.
  • In 2006, 5.9% of divorces involved separation within the first year of marriage, 32.5% within the first five years and a further 21.7% of divorcing couples separated within five to nine years of marriage. In 2006, 45.7% of divorcing couples separated after 10 years of marriage.
  • Of the divorcing couples in 2006, 15.5% were married less than five years, 24.9% between five and nine years and 59.6% were married for 10 years or more. In 2006, 16.3% couples who divorced had been married for 25 years or more compared with 16.5% in 2005.
  • Over the last 20 years, the proportion of divorces involving children under 18 years has decreased from 59.7% in 1986 and 53.6% in 1996 to 50.1% in 2006. The number of children involved in divorce in 2006 (48,396) decreased 1.9% from 49,358 in 2005 and 7.7% from 52,455 in 1996 and is 7% higher compared with 1986 (45,231).
  • In 43% of divorces involving children in 2006, there were two children involved compared with 37.5% involving only one child, 14.8% involving three and 4.7% involving four or more children.
  • Of divorces involving children aged below 18 in 2006, the age of the youngest child was over 10 years for 40% of divorces, 5 to 9 years for 36.2% and less than 5 years for 23.8%.
  • The divorce rate soared to a peak of 4.6 divorces per 1,000 resident population when the Family Law Act 1975 came into operation (5 Jan, 1976), which allowed only one ground for divorce ("irretrievable breakdown" as measured by at least 12 months separation). This change led to the formalisation of some long-term separations and the bringing forward of some divorces that had been filed in the previous years but were not as yet finalised. Since then the crude divorce rate has mostly fluctuated between 2.5 and 3.0, with a trough occurring in the mid-1980s.
  • While the crude divorce rate has remained at a high plateau since the early 1980s, the number of divorces has increased since the mid-1980s – a trend that reflects the growth in the Australian adult population.
  • While couples are increasingly likely to live together before they marry, cohabiting relationships tend to be less stable than marriages. Only 9% of those whose cohabitation commenced in the early 1990s were still cohabiting with the same partner in 2001 (7-11 years later). Only 2% of men and women who began cohabiting 10 years earlier than this (in the early 1980s) were still cohabiting with the same partner in 2001.
  • Cohabiting relationships that commenced in the early 1970s were much more likely to end in marriage than separation (63% vs 25%).
  • Since the 1970s, cohabiting relationships became increasingly likely to end in separation than in marriage. The chance of a cohabiting couple who began living together in the early 1990s being married five years later was only slightly higher than the chance of separation (43% vs 38%).
  • The chance of cohabitation ending in separation has increased progressively. The trends in couple formation and dissolution have resulted in an increase in the proportion of Australian adults who are unpartnered.
  • The Matrimonial Causes Act 1959 provided 14 grounds for the grant of a decree of dissolution of marriage ('divorce'), including adultery, desertion, cruelty, habitual drunkenness, imprisonment and insanity. To succeed on one of these grounds, a spouse had to prove marital fault.
  • Since the Family Law Act 1975 commenced, the sole ground for divorce is that the marriage has 'broken down irretrievably'. The ground is established if a spouse can satisfy the court that 'the parties separated and thereafter lived separately and apart for a continuous period' for 12 months before the filing of the divorce application.
  • In 1996, 9.6% of those aged 50-59 had been divorced. In 2006, it was 15%, and it is likely to continue to grow even faster.
  • In 1985, 11% of husbands aged 50-59 divorced. In 2005, that had jumped to 20%. For women aged 50-59, the trend is even more pronounced, changing from 7% in 1985 to 16% in 2005. Long marriages are also suffering: of all divorces in 1985, 10% of couples had been married for 25 years or longer. Ten years later, it was 16%.