by Tony Rucinski, Coalition for Marriage
Divorces in 2023 rose to 102,678, a big jump from the 80,057 granted in 2022, new statistics from the Office for National Statistics revealed this month. Coming just a year after unilateral ‘no‑fault’ divorce came into effect in April 2022, it suggests – as C4M warned at the time – that making divorce easier means couples resort to it more readily, rather than trying to save their marriage.
The fact that this surge occurred despite the number of marriages continuing their long-term downward trend only makes the picture even more stark.
Tragically, each of these 100,000-plus divorces represents another family torn in two, with children in many cases now facing a future of absent parents and broken homes.
In part, the surge is a rebound from the artificially low year of 2022, when the implementation of the new rules appears to have resulted in a temporary slump.
However, with the number of divorces back to their pre-pandemic level, despite a drop in the number of people getting married, it cannot all be blamed on this.