Your Divorce Is More Than a Statistic – What the Latest Divorce Figures Really Mean

The latest divorce statistics for England and Wales have just been published.

They tell us how many couples divorced, how long marriages lasted and whether people applied for divorce jointly or on their own.

But they cannot tell us what it feels like to be the person wondering whether your own marriage is coming to an end.

Your divorce is more than a statistic.

It may involve a home you have lived in for years.

Pensions you expected to rely on together.

Children who are growing up, leaving home or starting university.

A career that has developed around family life.

Plans for retirement that suddenly feel less certain.

And perhaps the biggest question of all:

“What will my life look like afterwards?”

The latest Office for National Statistics figures do, however, tell us something useful about how divorce is changing.

One of the most striking findings is that people are divorcing after longer marriages.

For opposite-sex couples divorcing in 2025, the median length of marriage was 13 years.

That is the longest recorded since the ONS series began in 1963.

For someone considering separation after 10, 15, 20 years or more together, that matters.

Ending the legal marriage may be relatively straightforward.

Untangling the life you have built together can be more complicated.

The figure also only measures the length of the marriage itself. It does not tell us how long a couple may have lived together before they married.

A couple divorcing after a 13-year marriage may, for example, have already lived together for five or ten years before the wedding.

Their shared financial and family history may therefore be much longer than the marriage statistic suggests.

They may have bought a home together, had children, combined finances or made career decisions long before they became legally married.

This is another reason why a divorce statistic can only ever tell us part of the story.

What do the latest divorce statistics show?

There were 105,002 divorces in England and Wales in 2025.

That number was similar to recent years and considerably lower than the levels seen during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, when there were around 150,000 divorces a year.

For opposite-sex marriages, the divorce rate in 2025 was 8.4 divorces for every 1,000 married people.

In 1993, it was 14.2 per 1,000.

So, the latest figures do not show that divorce is simply becoming more common.

The more interesting story may be when divorce is happening and how much life couples may have built together before they separate.

Marriages ending in divorce are lasting longer

The median duration of an opposite-sex marriage ending in divorce has generally increased since the mid-1980s.

In 1985, it was 8.9 years.

By 2025, it had reached 13 years.

A median does not mean every marriage lasts 13 years.

It means half of the marriages ending in divorce lasted for less than 13 years and half lasted longer.

But the long-term trend is important.

By the time you have spent many years together, your lives may be deeply connected.

You may have bought a home.

You may have built up pensions and savings.

One of you may have taken time away from work or reduced your hours while raising children.

You may have made financial decisions based on the expectation that you would remain together.

Perhaps retirement is no longer something in the distant future.

That can make separation feel especially daunting.

A longer marriage can mean more to untangle

After many years together, finances rarely fit neatly into two separate boxes.

You may have:

• equity in the family home;
• workplace and personal pensions;
• savings and investments;
• mortgages or other liabilities;
• different incomes and earning capacities;
• children who still need financial support; and
• different expectations about retirement.

One person may also know far more about the family finances than the other.

That is why it can be risky to begin with:

“We’ll just split everything in half.”

or:

“I’ll keep the house and my husband can keep his pension.”

Those arrangements might eventually form part of an agreement.

But you need to understand the whole financial picture before deciding whether they work.

Two assets showing the same value on paper may not provide the same financial security.

A house and a pension are very different things.

The amount each person receives also tells only part of the story.

You need to think about what those resources will enable each of you to do afterwards.

Your future needs matter too

Divorce is not simply an exercise in dividing what you own today.

You also need to think about tomorrow.

For example:

• Where will each of you live?
• Can either of you afford to remain in the family home?
• How much would alternative housing cost?
• What income will you each have?
• What can you borrow?
• When do you hope to retire?
• What pension income might you have?
• Do your children still depend on you financially?
• What will it cost to run two households rather than one?

For someone divorcing in their 40s, 50s or 60s, these questions can be particularly important.

There may be less time to rebuild savings or pension provision.

A decision that seems workable today could have a very different impact five or ten years from now.

The question is not simply “What will I get?”

It is also:

“Will this give me a realistic and secure way forward?”

Are couples divorcing earlier or later?

The ONS figures also show an interesting change when marriages are compared by the year in which couples married.

Among couples who married in 1995, 24.7% had divorced before their tenth wedding anniversary.

For couples who married in 2015, the figure was lower at 16.3%.

So, more recent marriage groups have been less likely to divorce within their first 10 years than couples who married during the 1980s and 1990s.

That does not mean those marriages will never end.

Nor does it tell us why any particular couple stayed together or eventually separated.

It does remind us that relationships do not all follow the same pattern.

Some marriages end relatively quickly.

Others change gradually over many years.

And for many people, deciding whether to separate is not the result of one dramatic event.

It may follow months or even years of uncertainty.

You may have been thinking about divorce for a long time

Statistics cannot measure the period before someone finally says:

“I think our marriage is over.”

You may have wondered about separation for years.

Perhaps you stayed because the children were young.

You may have worried about money.

You might have been frightened about losing the family home.

Perhaps you hoped things would improve.

Or you may simply have had no idea where to start.

By the time you take the first practical step, you may have been living with the decision emotionally for a long time.

Your husband or wife may be in a very different place.

They may only just be beginning to think about what separation means.

Understanding that difference can sometimes explain why two people approach the early stages of divorce very differently.

Most divorces are still started by one person

Since the law changed in April 2022, married couples in England and Wales can make either a sole or joint divorce application.

In 2025, 74.3% of divorces completed under the new law came from sole applications.

That means most divorces still involved one spouse making the legal application rather than both applying jointly.

But this needs some context.

A sole divorce application does not automatically mean an acrimonious divorce.

One person may simply take responsibility for dealing with the paperwork.

You can make a sole application and still discuss finances and children constructively.

Likewise, submitting a joint divorce application does not mean that all your financial arrangements have already been agreed.

The legal divorce and the decisions about your finances are separate processes.

What does it mean that more women make sole applications?

Among opposite-sex divorces arising from sole applications under the new law in 2025, 61.2% had a female applicant and 35.6% had a male applicant. Sex information was missing in the remaining cases.

That figure may attract headlines.

But it is important not to read more into it than the statistics tell us.

It does not mean women were responsible for 61.2% of all divorces.

The figure relates only to opposite-sex divorces where one person made the application.

It does not tell us who first decided that the marriage should end.

Nor does the figure tell us why the relationship ended.

Under the current divorce law, applicants no longer have to establish one of the former facts to show why the marriage has broken down.

So the ONS statistics tell us who made the application.

They cannot tell us the story behind it.

Taking the first step does not mean having all the answers

The person who applies for divorce may appear to be further ahead.

They may have researched the process.

Perhaps they have completed the divorce application or arranged a MIAM.

But that does not mean they already know what should happen to the finances.

They may still be asking:

Can I afford to keep the house?

What happens to our pensions?

Will I have enough to retire?

How much will it cost me to live on my own?

What do I not know about our finances?

The other person may have completely different concerns.

Perhaps they may feel that everything is moving too quickly.

They may worry that decisions have already been made.

Or they may be trying to understand financial matters they have never previously managed.

Neither person needs to arrive at mediation with a complete solution.

The divorce itself does not sort out your finances

This is an important distinction.

Ending your marriage legally does not automatically divide your money and property.

You may still need to deal with:

• your home;
• pensions;
• savings;
• investments;
• debts;
• income;
• maintenance; and
• other financial arrangements.

If you reach an agreement about your finances, you will usually need an appropriate court-approved consent order if you want that agreement to be legally binding.

This is why it is important not to concentrate solely on completing the divorce paperwork while leaving the financial arrangements unresolved.

What can statistics not tell us?

National statistics are useful.

They show us how divorce is changing across England and Wales.

But there is a great deal they cannot tell us about an individual family.

They cannot tell us:

• why your marriage has broken down;
• whether you want the separation or are responding to someone else’s decision;
• how confident you feel about money;
• who managed the finances during your marriage;
• whether you can afford to live separately;
• what your children need;
• whether keeping the family home is realistic;
• what your pensions might provide in retirement; or
• what a fair and workable financial arrangement might look like for you.

Those questions cannot be answered by national averages.

They require an understanding of your own circumstances.

That is why your divorce is more than a statistic.

If you are thinking about divorce, where do you start?

You do not need to decide immediately what should happen to everything you own.

And you do not have to arrive with a proposed financial settlement.

A more useful first step is often to understand your position.

That might mean finding out:

• what assets and liabilities you have;
• how much remains on your mortgage;
• what your pensions are worth;
• how much income you each receive;
• what your regular expenditure is;
• how much alternative housing might cost; and
• what you may each need in the future.

If you do not currently know all of those things, that is not unusual.

You can gather the information as part of the process.

Understanding the financial picture gives you a much stronger foundation for considering your options.

How can mediation help?

Mediation can give you a structured way to work through the practical and financial issues arising from separation.

For financial mediation, the process usually begins with financial disclosure.

You both provide information about your finances so that you are working from the same overall picture.

Once the information is sufficiently complete, you can begin exploring your respective needs and possible arrangements.

That may include:

• what happens to the family home;
• how pensions should be considered;
• savings and investments;
• income and expenditure;
• debts;
• retirement plans; and
• any continuing financial needs of your children.

As mediator, I remain impartial.

I do not decide what either of you should receive.

I help you identify the issues, understand the information and explore possible ways forward.

You can also obtain independent legal, financial or pension advice where this is needed.

Frequently asked questions

How many divorces were there in England and Wales in 2025?

The Office for National Statistics recorded 105,002 divorces in England and Wales in 2025.

The overall number was similar to recent years and remained below the levels seen during the peak decades of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.

How long does a marriage usually last before divorce?

For opposite-sex marriages ending in divorce in 2025, the median duration was 13 years.

That was the longest median duration recorded since the ONS series began in 1963.

Remember that a median is not a prediction of how long an individual marriage will last.

Does a sole divorce application mean the divorce is not amicable?

No.

A sole application simply means that one spouse made the legal divorce application rather than both spouses making a joint application.

It does not tell us whether the couple can work together constructively over finances or children.

Does getting divorced automatically separate our finances?

No.

The divorce legally ends the marriage.

Your property, pensions, savings and other financial arrangements may still need to be resolved separately.

Can we use mediation even if one of us has already applied for divorce?

Yes, provided mediation is assessed as safe and suitable.

Mediation is separate from the divorce application itself.

You can use it to work through financial matters, arrangements for children or both.

Your divorce is more than a statistic

The latest figures give us an interesting picture of divorce in England and Wales.

The indication is that marriages ending in divorce are lasting longer than they once did, and they also show that most divorces under the current law still begin with one person making the legal application.

But those figures cannot tell us what separation means for you.

Your marriage has its own history.

Each person’s finances are individual.

Your family has its own needs.

And the future you are trying to build will not be found in a national statistic.

If you have spent many years building a life together, the prospect of untangling it can feel overwhelming.

You do not have to work everything out before taking the first step.

If you are considering separation and would like to understand whether mediation could help, you can start with an individual confidential MIAM.

It gives you the opportunity to explain your circumstances privately, find out how mediation works and consider what your next step might be.

You can find more practical guidance on finances, children, mediation and separation in my Separation and Divorce Advice Hub.