MARRIAGES AND DIVORCES, AUSTRALIA

This publication provides data and information about marriages registered and divorces granted in Australia in 2013 on a state or territory of registration basis rather than a state or territory of usual residence. The publication presents statistics on the number of marriages registered, crude marriage rates, median age at marriage, age-specific marriage rates, previous marital status, use of marriage celebrants, country of birth of those marrying, and living arrangements for couples prior to marriage. Divorce statistics in this publication provide state, territory and national level data for the number of divorces granted, crude divorce rates, ages at marriage, separation and divorce, age-specific divorce rates, divorces involving children, duration of marriage prior to divorce, and applicants for divorce.


2013 KEY POINTS

There were 118,962 marriages registered and 47,638 divorces granted in Australia in 2013. Over the past five years there has been a gradual increase in the median age at separation and divorce. This aligns with a gradual increase in the median age at first marriage.



MARRIAGES

• The number of marriages decreased in 2013 by 4,282 (3.5%) and the crude marriage rate decreased from 5.4 in 2012 to 5.1 marriages per 1,000 estimated resident population in 2013.
  
• Civil celebrants have overseen the majority of marriages since 1999 and the proportion of marriage ceremonies overseen by a civil celebrant increased again to 72.5 per cent of all marriages in 2013.

• In 2013, the majority of brides (81.3%) and grooms (79.7%) had not been married before.

• The median age at marriage in 2013 was 31.5 years for males and 29.5 years for females. This was an increase of 0.1 years for both males and females since 2012.

DIVORCES

• The number of divorces decreased in 2013 by 2,279 (4.6%) and the crude divorce rate decreased from 2.2 in 2012 to 2.1 divorces per 1,000 estimated resident population in 2013.
  
• The median duration from marriage to divorce in 2013 was 12.1 years a slight decrease from 12.2 years reported in 2012.

• The median age at divorce for males was 44.8 years of age and the median ages of females was 42.2 years of age for the divorces granted in 2013.

• The largest proportion of divorce applications were from joint applicants, accounting for 41.2% of divorces. Female applicants accounted for 32.9% of divorce applications while male applicants accounted for 25.9%.

SUMMARY TABLES

MARRIAGES

In 2013, there were 118,962 marriages registered in Australia, a decrease of 4,282 (3.5%) from the 123,244 marriages registered in 2012.

Although the number of marriages decreased in 2013, the estimated resident population increased by 407,027 from 2012 to 2013. As a result, the crude marriage rate decreased from 5.4 to 5.1 marriages per 1,000 estimated resident population.

The median age of males and females at marriage was 31.5 and 29.5 years respectively in 2013. The median age at marriage for males and females has increased by 0.1 years since 2012.

The proportion of marriage ceremonies performed by civil celebrants has continued to increase in 2013, with civil celebrants performing 72.5% of all registered marriage ceremonies, an increase from 71.9% in 2012.
Couples who lived together prior to marriage accounted for 76.6% of all marriages registered in 2013, a decrease from the 77.6% registered in 2012.

The proportion of marriages with both partners marrying for the first time increased in 2013 to 72.5% of all marriages. The number of marriages where one partner was marrying for the first time was unchanged (16.3%) from 2012, while the proportion of remarriages for both partners decreased from 11.9% in 2012 to 11.4% in 2013.

In 2013, 55.1% of couples married were both born in Australia, 31.6% were born in different countries, and 13.2% were born in the same overseas country.


1.1 SELECTED MARRIAGE INDICATORS(a), Australia, Selected years, 1993–2013

				1993	2003	2009	2010	2011	2012(b)	2013(b)
Marriages registered			no.	113,255	106,394	120,118	121,176	121,752	123,244	118,962
Crude marriage rate(c)			rate	6.4	5.3	5.5	5.4	5.4	5.4	5.1
Previous marital status
	First marriage both partners		no.	75,968	70,644	84,780	86,330	86,862	88,543	86,075
	First marriage one partner		no.	21,123	19,678	20,107	20,128	20,416	20,091	19,338
	Remarriage both partners		no.	16,164	16,072	15,231	14,718	14,474	14,604	13,549
Marriage celebrant
	Ministers of religion(d)
		Number	no.	51,947	38,003	39,740	37,251	36,372	34,613	32,600
		Proportion	%	57.9	43.4	33.1	30.7	29.9	28.1	27.4
	Civil Celebrants(d)
		Number	no.	65,573	46,187	80,340	83,800	85,311	88,599	86,304
		Proportion	%	42.1	56.6	66.9	69.2	70.1	71.9	72.5
Relative birthplace of couple(e)
	Both born in Australia		no.	72,532	65,436	69,643	68,588	67,882	69,048	65,603
	Both born in the same overseas country		no.	9,021	9,502	14,210	14,585	15,321	15,438	15,727
	Born in different countries		no.	31,695	31,444	36,185	37,925	38,45.87	38,687	37,552
Cohabitation prior to marriage
	Number		no.	na	79,311	92,978	95,194	95,228	95,673	91,123
	Proportion of all marriages		%	na	74.5	77.4	78.6	78.2	77.6	76.6
na not available
(a) See Glossary for definitions of terms used.
(b) Care should be taken in interpreting Victorian data from 2012 as the category values are calculated from a weighted sample. Please see Explanatory Notes 27–29 for further information.
(c) Marriages per 1,000 of estimated resident population at 30 June for each reference year respectively. See Glossary and Explanatory Notes 36–42 for further information.
(d) Excludes marriages where the rite is not stated or not defined. Registers of ministers of religion are maintained by states and territories under the authority of the Marriage Act 1961. Data on religious marriage rites are classified to the Australian Standard Classification of Religious Groups (ASCRG), 2011 (cat. no. 1266.0).
(e) Excludes marriages where country of birth of one or both partners is not stated.

DIVORCES

In 2013, there were 47,638 divorces granted in Australia, a decrease of 2,279 (4.6%) from the 49,917 divorces granted in 2012.

The crude divorce rate for the number of divorces per 1,000 estimated resident population was 2.1 in 2013, a decrease from 2.2 divorces per 1,000 estimated resident population reported for 2011 and 2012.

The median age of males and females at divorce was 44.8 and 42.2 years respectively in 2013. Median age at divorce in 2013 has increased by 0.2 years for males and 0.4 years for females from 2012.

In 2013, divorces involving children represented 47.4% of all divorces granted compared with 48.4% in 2012. The number of children involved in divorces totalled 41,747 in 2013, a decrease from the 44,834 reported in 2012. The average number of children per divorce involving children in 2013 was 1.8.

The median duration from marriage to divorce in 2013 was 12.1 years, a slight decrease from that reported in 2011 and 2012. This number has been decreasing from a peak of 12.6 years in 2005.

Over the last 20 years, the proportion of divorces granted as a result of joint applications for divorce has been increasing. This has continued in 2013 to the point where joint applicants are the highest applicant type for the fourth year in a row, with 19,625 divorces granted from joint applications, compared with 15,684 from female applicants and 12,329 from male applicants.


1.2 SELECTED DIVORCE INDICATORS, Australia, Selected years, 1993-2013

			1993	2003	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Divorces granted		no.	48,363	53,145	49,448	50,240	48,935	49,917	47,638
Crude divorce rate(a)		rate	2.7	2.7	2.3	2.3	2.2	2.2	2.1
Median length of marriage
	To separation	years	7.6	8.7	8.7	8.8	8.7	8.6	8.5
	To divorce	years	10.7	12.2	12.3	12.3	12.2	12.2	12.1
Divorces involving children(b)
	Divorces	no.	25,461	26,637	24,268	24,853	23,619	24,144	22,590
	Proportion of all divorces	%	52.6	50.1	49.1	49.5	48.3	48.4	47.4
	Total number of children	no.	48,107	49,850	45,195	46,337	43,867	44,834	41,747
	Average number of children per divorce(c)	no.	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.8
Relative birthplace of people granted divorce(d)
	Both born in Australia	no.	27,160	30,674	25,922	26,305	24,890	25,301	24,385
	Both born in same overseas country	no.	6,220	7,055	7,550	8,064	8,455	8,623	8,180
	Born in different countries	no.	14,746	14,223	13,295	13,553	13,194	13,517	12,904
Type of applicant(e)
	Male	no.	17,098	17,229	13,236	13,215	12,924	12,958	12,329
	Female	no.	23,630	22,870	18,149	18,083	17,439	17,140	15,684
	Joint	no.	7,635	13,046	18,063	18,941	18,572	19,819	19,625
(a) Number of divorces per 1,000 estimated resident population at 30 June for each reference year respectively. See Glossary and Explanatory Notes 33–34 and 38–40 for more information.
(b) Unmarried children of the marriage who were aged under 18 years at the time of application for divorce. See Glossary for more information.
(c) Excludes divorces not involving children.
(d) Excludes divorces where country of birth of one party or both parties is not stated.
(e) Excludes divorces where type of applicant is not stated.