The Marriage Foundation says that the divorce rate for couples who married after 2017 is set to fall by 22% over the next 15 years.

The foundation conducted a wide-ranging survey across Europe. It found that divorce rates are falling in several countries, with the UK leading the way.

UK couples marrying in 1992 had a divorce rate of 30.7% during the first 15 years of their marriage – the 3rd highest rate out of the 20 countries surveyed. A decade later, for UK couples marrying in 2002, this rate had fallen to 28.1%.

For UK couples who married in 2017, the projected divorce rate is 22.5%.

Harry Benson, Research Director for Marriage Foundation, said: “We have long claimed that lower divorce rates in the UK are due to the relaxation of social pressure to marry. The result is that those who do marry are more committed and hence more likely to stay together.

“We are just beginning to see this trend ripple across Europe in the earliest years of marriage. But over the first fifteen years of marriage, Britain clearly leads Europe.

Sir Paul Coleridge, founder of Marriage Foundation and former high court judge, added: “It is consistent with all the recent statistical data showing that marriages are being undertaken nowadays with a degree of serious commitment not seen for decades.

“By comparison with their parents, couples are marrying later, more thoughtfully and thus more enduringly. Hopefully they are also taking notice of the constant stream of data showing the qualitative advantages to married relationships.”

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