MARRIAGES AND DIVORCES, AUSTRALIA

This publication provides data and information about marriages registered and divorces granted in Australia in 2014 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.

2014 KEY POINTS

There were 121,197 marriages registered and 46,498 divorces granted in Australia in 2014. 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 increased in 2014 by 2,238 (1.9%) and the crude marriage rate increased from 5.1 in 2013 to 5.2 marriages per 1,000 estimated resident population in 2014.

· Civil celebrants have overseen the majority of marriages since 1999 and the proportion of marriage ceremonies overseen by a civil celebrant increased again to 74.1 per cent of all marriages in 2014.

· In 2014, the majority of brides (81.2%) and grooms (79.7%) had not been married before.

· The median age at marriage in 2014 was 31.5 years for males and 29.6 years for females. The median age at marriage has remained stable for males since 2013, while for females it increased by 0.1 years.

DIVORCES

· The number of divorces decreased by 1,140 (2.4%) in 2014 and the crude divorce rate decreased from 2.1 in 2013 to 2.0 divorces per 1,000 estimated resident population in 2014.

· The median duration from marriage to divorce in 2014 was 12.0 years, a slight decrease from 12.1 years reported in 2013.

· The median age at divorce for males was 45.2 years of age and the median age of females was 42.5 years of age for those divorces granted in 2014.

· The largest proportion of divorce applications were from joint applicants, accounting for 41.5% of divorces. Female applicants accounted for 32.5% of divorce applications while male applicants accounted for 26.0%.

SUMMARY TABLES

MARRIAGES

In 2014, there were 121,197 marriages registered in Australia, an increase of 2,238 (1.9%) from the 118,959 marriages registered in 2013. The crude marriage rate also increased from 5.1 to 5.2 marriages per 1,000 estimated resident population.

The median age of males and females at marriage was 31.5 and 29.6 years respectively in 2014. The median age at marriage for males has remained steady at 31.5, while the median age at marriage for females has increased by 0.1 years since 2013.

The proportion of marriage ceremonies performed by civil celebrants has continued to increase in 2014, with civil celebrants performing 74.1% of all registered marriage ceremonies, an increase from 72.5% in 2013.

Couples who lived together prior to marriage accounted for 79.4% of all marriages registered in 2014, an increase from the 76.6% recorded in 2013.

Marriages where both partners were marrying for the first time accounted for 72.5% of all marriage in 2014. The number of marriages where one partner was marrying for the first time decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 16.0% in 2014, while the proportion of remarriages for both partners increased from 11.4% in 2013 to 11.5% in 2014.

In 2014, 54.5% of couples married were both born in Australia, 31.7% were born in different countries, and 13.3% were born in the same overseas country.


1.1 SELECTED MARRIAGE INDICATORS(a), Australia, Selected years, 1994–2014

				1994	2004	2010	2011	2012(b)	2013(b)	2014
Marriages registered			no.	111,174	110,958	121,173	121,754	123,243	118,959	121,197
Crude marriage rate(c)			rate	6.2	5.5	5.4	5.4	5.4	5.1	5.2
Previous marital status
	First marriage both partners		no.	75,045	74,581	86,328	86,863	88,540	86,076	87,811
	First marriage one partner		no.	20,159	19,994	20,129	20,415	20,089	19,339	19,433
	Remarriage both partners		no.	15,970	16,382	14,715	14,476	14,604	13,549	13,952
Marriage celebrant
	Ministers of religion(d)
		Number	no.	63,265	45,857	37,254	36,375	34,612	32,601	31,278
		Proportion	%	56.9	41.3	30.7	29.9	28.1	27.4	25.8
	Civil Celebrants(d)
		Number	no.	47,909	65,100	83,799	85,311	88,599	86,301	89,861
		Proportion	%	43.1	58.7	69.2	70.1	71.9	72.5	74.1
Relative birthplace of couple(e)
	Both born in Australia		no.	71,665	68,639	68,586	67,882	69,046	65,605	66,074
	Both born in the same overseas country		no.	8,853	9,686	14,588	15,319	15,439	15,728	16,188
	Born in different countries		no.	30,652	32,630	37,925	38,488	38,686	37,553	38,408
Cohabitation prior to marriage
	Number		no.	na	83,728	95,197	95,226	95,670	91,120	96,223
	Proportion of all marriages		%	na	75.5	78.6	78.2	77.6	76.6	79.4
na not available
(a) See Glossary for definitions of terms used.
(b) Care should be taken in interpreting Victorian data from 2012 and 2013 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 2014, there were 46,498 divorces granted in Australia, a decrease of 1,140 (2.4%) from the 47,638 divorces granted in 2013.

The crude divorce rate for the number of divorces per 1,000 estimated resident population was 2.0 in 2014, a decrease from 2.1 divorces per 1,000 estimated resident population reported for 2013.

The median age of males and females at divorce was 45.2 and 42.5 years respectively in 2014. Median age at divorce in 2014 has increased by 0.4 years for males and 0.3 years for females from 2013.

In 2014, divorces involving children represented 47.0% of all divorces granted compared with 47.4% in 2013. The number of children involved in divorces totalled 40,152 in 2014, a decrease from the 41,747 reported in 2013. The average number of children per divorce involving children in 2014 was 1.8.

The median duration from marriage to divorce in 2014 was 12.0 years, a slight decrease from that reported in 2013. 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 result of joint applications for divorce has been increasing. This has continued in 2014 to the point where joint applicants are the highest applicant type for the fifth year in a row, with 19,281 divorces granted from joint applications, compared with 15,127 from female applicants and 12,090 from male applicants.


1.2 SELECTED DIVORCE INDICATORS, Australia, Selected years, 1994-2014

			1994	2004	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Divorces granted		no.	48,312	52,747	50,240	48,935	49,917	47,638	46,498
Crude divorce rate(a)		rate	2.7	2.6	2.3	2.2	2.2	2.1	2.0
Median length of marriage
	To separation	years	7.6	8.7	8.8	8.7	8.6	8.5	8.4
	To divorce	years	10.9	12.3	12.3	12.2	12.2	12.1	12.0
Divorces involving children(b)
	Divorces	no.	25,316	26,289	24,853	23,619	24,144	22,590	21,840
	Proportion of all divorces	%	52.4	49.8	49.5	48.3	48.4	47.4	47.0
	Total number of children	no.	47,537	49,260	46,337	43,867	44,834	41,747	40,152
	Average number of children per divorce(c)	no.	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.8	1.8
Relative birthplace of people granted divorce(d)
	Both born in Australia	no.	27,090	30,729	26,305	24,890	25,301	24,385	23,565
	Both born in same overseas country	no.	6,056	6,904	8,064	8,455	8,623	8,180	8,091
	Born in different countries	no.	3,283	14,375	13,553	13,194	13,517	12,904	12,746
Type of applicant(e)
	Male	no.	17,350	16,365	13,215	12,924	12,958	12,329	12,090
	Female	no.	23,739	21,614	18,083	17,439	17,140	15,684	15,127
	Joint	no.	7,223	14,768	18,941	18,572	19,819	19,625	19,281
na not available
(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.