Family values - the perception & the facts

[nickd]

Mylegal takes a look at family values - the perception & the facts





Marriage - is it really the answer to a better society?


Much of the campaign work for individuals reliant on welfare support (via out of work & in work related benefits/tax credits) has rightly been concentrated upon disabled individuals who are without doubt amongst the most vulnerable in society. However, a sector of society which gets an equally rough press are lone parents, many of whom have lived through once perfectly happy marriages which end up going sour. Others decide marriage simply isn't for them and quite happily support themselves and their children without the certificate or in some cases decide to live without the support of a partner. There are all manner of media perceptions and stereotypes being portrayed as we hear more and more about the importance of 'marriage' and 'stable families'. If we listened to some of these sensationalist headlines we could be forgiven for thinking that our current economic crisis is down to 'feckless' (not my words) lone parents who breed children and live off the state in nice cosy council houses for life. Conversely there is a message being given out by politicians that by default marriage builds for better lives and more stability for children. Of course marriage or living as a happy couple is for some but it's not for everyone. It is no doubt an economic answer if two people and their offspring can get on well enough to go two up in a nice neat suburban semi as it reduces the need for additional housing; but it's not always practical or possible. This is an issue which has a profound relevance to social welfare and a good starting point is to look at our prime minister's views.


(1) The Prime Minister's pre-election views...



David Cameron: Mending our Broken Society
Rt Hon David Cameron, Friday, January 22 2010





"I think we are in danger of becoming an irresponsible society"


“But what I would say and what I believe most profoundly has gone wrong is one simple word and that is responsibility. I think we are in danger of becoming an irresponsible society and we need to make Britain a responsible society. So what’s gone wrong and how do we put it right?

“Well just consider this; consider the signals that we send people in Britain today. Consider the fact that we send a signal to couples that you’re worse off if you stay together and you’re better off if you separate. Consider the signal we send to the single mum who actually wants to go out and work and earn so that her family’s better off, we say we’ll take away over ninety per cent of what you earn. Think of the signal we send to the head teacher, exclude the difficult pupil, try to safeguard the education for those who want to get on and actually you’ll be disadvantaged and the appeals panel might put that child in back in your school and say you’ve done the wrong thing, think of that signal."

www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2010/01/David_Cameron_Mending_our_Broken_Society.aspx


(2) Difference of opinion.....




Centre for Policy Studies


"Benefit changes since 1997 are turning Britain into "the lone-parent capital of the western world"


"Benefit changes since 1997 are turning Britain into "the lone-parent capital of the western world", according to a report today from centre-right thinktank the Centre for Policy Studies.

It said the number of children growing up with only one parent has risen by a quarter to 3.2 million in the seven years since Labour came to power. This was a higher proportion than elsewhere in western Europe, and meant the UK was about to overtake the United States."


CPS's claims are refuted...





National Family and Parenting Institute



"We are reaping the whirlwind from the massive increase in child poverty through the 1990s and 90s and lone parenthood should not be made the scapegoat."


"This analysis by Ruth Lea's lobby group is predictably selective and misleading. It is simply nonsense that the government encourages people to remain on welfare. In reality, we have created 2 million new jobs since 1997, and as a result of the new support we have put in place, the number of lone parents in employment has increased by 40% since 1997," he added.

Mary MacLeod, the chief executive of the National Family and Parenting Institute, said: "Being a lone parent is a tough call and not one that most lone parents would choose. Lifting lone parent families out of poverty, and providing support for people leaving difficult, destructive relationships is a vital part of improving outcomes for children.

"It is important to examine how all families can be supported by the state because the impact of poverty and disadvantage on children, and therefore on society, is profound.

"We are reaping the whirlwind from the massive increase in child poverty through the 1990s and 90s and lone parenthood should not be made the scapegoat."

Read more here...

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/jan/21/childrensservices.politics



(3) The 'solutions' thus far....



David Cameron's post election solutions for broken Britain: tough love and tougher policing







"PM targets 120,000 'troubled families' as Home Office sources confirm massive surge in police riot training"


Speaking at a youth centre in his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire, Cameron said: "The broken society is back at the top of my political agenda … I have an ambition, before the end of this parliament, we will turn around the lives of 120,000 most troubled families … we need more urgent action on the families that some people call 'problem', others call 'troubled'. The ones everyone in their neighbourhood knows and often avoids."

He said would ask the chief executive of an organisation called Action for Employment (A4e), Emma Harrison, who he appointed his "families champion" in December, to use her experience in dealing with troubled families in three pilot areas to overcome the bureaucratic problems that have prevented the rapid expansion of Labour's similar families intervention programme, running since 2006.

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/15/david-cameron-broken-britain-policing



Cameron says parenting classes will instil ‘right values’ in next generation







The Prime Minister has pledged free parenting classes and relationship support for couples to help “raise the next generation with the right values”.


"Parenting vouchers worth £100 will be available from Boots stores. Vouchers for free parenting classes will be availble to all parents of children aged five in three trial areas; while relationship support for first-time parents will be offered in four localities. All mothers and fathers in the three voucher trial areas will be entitled to a coupon worth £100 covering the cost of a course of parenting classes, available from Boots stores, children’s centres and health visitors. Up to £5m has been made available for the vouchers trial between March 2012 and March 2014. This includes funding for redemption of parenting class vouchers and an independent evaluation. David Cameron also annouced the launch of a new digital service, that will allow parents to sign up for emails and texts with information on pregnancy and early child development."

www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1073307/cameron-parenting-classes-instil-right-values-generation


David Cameron breaks extra midwives pledge



David Cameron promised pregnant women more midwives but has failed to deliver [/color][/i]


Despite pre-election promises to increase the number of midwives, David Cameron has failed to deliver, says the Royal College of Midwives. The Prime Minister promised to provide funding for 3,000 extra midwives, but it seems this pledge has been abandoned since the Coalition came into power.

Cathy Warwick, of the Royal College of Midwives, says the service is at ‘cracking point’. Birth rates between 2001 and 2009 increased by 20% while the number of midwives increased by 12%.

"Before the election, both David Cameron and Nick Clegg pledged more midwives. David Cameron stressed the importance to mothers and said that if he was in power, he would give us 3,000 more midwives," said Cathy recently in BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"But following a meeting with Andrew Lansley, the Secretary of State for Health, we understand the Government is clearly not prepared to fulfil that commitment."

www.babyexpert.com/family/life/david-cameron-breaks-extra-midwives-pledge/1131.html



(4) Media distortion



It's not just absent fathers, Mr Cameron. Family breakdown is driven by single mothers on benefits - says Daily Mail








"There is another feckless actor in this dysfunctional family drama — the mother, who may be having children by a series of different men. "



"This is, indeed, reckless and reprehensible behaviour. But it is only part of a much more complex and deeply rooted problem. Most pertinently, it totally ignores the fact that there is another feckless actor in this dysfunctional family drama — the mother, who may be having children by a series of different men. In line with politically correct thinking, Mr Cameron presents such girls or women as the hapless victims of predatory males. But that is just plain wrong. For at the most fundamental level, this whole process is driven by women and girls.
In those far-off days before the sexual revolution, relations between the sexes were based on a kind of unspoken bargain. Women needed the father of their children to stick around while they grew up, in return for which a woman gave a solemn undertaking to be faithful to this one man. For his part, the father’s interests were served by being offered not just a permanent sexual relationship but a guarantee from the trust placed in his wife that the children were, indeed, his.

With the combination of the sexual revolution, the Pill and the welfare state, however, women’s interests changed. Suddenly they were being told sex outside marriage was fine, unmarried motherhood was fine — and crucially, that the welfare state would provide them with the means to live without male support." - (Daily Mail)


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2005677/Family-breakdown-driven-single-mothers-benefits-absent-fathers.html#ixzz1vRMMgKKA


See next post for Mylegal view...

[nickd]

(5) David Cameron - family man?





A conservative conscience?


You'd probably find yourself blaming Labour if you so much as burnt the toast or spilled the morning coffee in the Cameron household. By default anything and everything is the fault of the previous government. Except in the case of families he's probably right with this one; well after all it is down to Labour that children are born in the first place I suppose! On a more serious note, it is what happens to the children which has become the problem. We've heard of broken Britain, broken schools, broken hospitals, broken railways, broken roads; but not yet broken children. Feckless parents, loathsome fathers are all acceptable tags, but Cameron's public relation advisers will have firmly told him to avoid telling us all that our 'children are broken'. Somehow if you are well heeled, with money in the bank and have been through an academic education after living happily with two parents you will probably stand a good chance of avoiding the badge of Tory contempt - the badge which identifies you as 'dysfunctional'. Heaven forbid any notion that a single mum or dad may just be able to raise a perfectly polite contributing child into the world with a future; it is against all the odds of Cameron's army of professor led think tanks for this eventuality to be considered remotely possible.


Cameron has an absolute obsession with the word 'family', by which he means the complete unit; a mum, a dad, 2.5 children, paying a repayment mortgage with a Ford Mondeo in the driveway next to the neatly mowed lawn; all paid for out of Tory friendly employment within the private sector. Public sector employees won't gain the necessary credentials for inclusion as one of Cameron's 'families'. He's clearly troubled over whether he's going to 'allow' same sex - couples; he's listening to his backbenchers before making his position clear, then we'll know which way he's swinging. Cameron seems to have given way to the days when it looked like he was on the verge of drafting emergency legislation to impose compulsory marriage orders upon us all; he's shown us he's part of a listening government. A good job really considering the number of people who don't have the slightest inclination to walk the aisle and swear a life long allegiance to one another in sickness and health 'till death do us part'. Although on marital vows I half suspect he'll seek an amendment from our lord and master on the sickness clause given his less than positive attitude towards anyone who just happens to be disabled. What I fail to understand is how Cameron with his costly Eton education and the sad experience he endured with his profoundly disabled son Ivan; has lost all sense of apparent humanity when dishing out policies which will profoundly affect the poorer social economic classes. As a father he must have some insight into what he sees around him, sadly it all seems to get lost on him when he speaks from the Westminster dispatch box. You would think from from his own personal experience he would know very well that it just not the done thing to kick the disabled and the disadvantaged. I fail to comprehend how he sees fit to exempt others from the same level of social protection he was afforded when seeking help from the state.


This isn't a personal attack on a man I don't know, it is an attack on everything he's doing. He's not making families better, he's making them worse by destroying their self-esteem, pride and sense of contributing, he's not just emptying their wallets - he's playing with people's sense of purpose. It has become too difficult for families who are seriously struggling to survive. It's even worse for lone parents who are totally up against it when trying to do the best for their children on limited incomes. It simply isn't on to damn all who have to rely on welfare in order to supplement meager earnings. This is no time to eradicate our commitment to reduce child poverty levels - the priority should be to ensure children come first. Mr Cameron's policies are promoting a whole new wave of 'broken children' - it is something he will one day have to accept as his ill gotten legacy as ultimately it will be the fault of his policies which creates an era of avoidable poverty. His claims to tackle endemic worklessness in families make no sense when his job cuts are plunging people into unemployment. Let no one be fooled by employment statistics which only give you half the picture. What really counts is whether individuals are actually earning enough to sustain a reasonable standard of living. For some this will mean working two or three jobs whilst drawing wages which hover around the bear national minimum. For lone parents it will mean making difficult choices over working extra hours to put food on their children's plate whilst considering whether they can pay a child minder. It all bites into the quality time a parent should be spending with their children - isn't that what we should be promoting?


In the next couple of posts you will find the real statistics behind lone parents and the rate of divorces and marriages. You can see that a rise in divorces is not unique to a Labour term of office. The number of people getting married has steadily declined from nearly half a million a year in 1940 to around a quarter in 2010. Anyone who maintains 'it's all Labour's fault' would do well to cast a self - critical eye over the statistics, they are more accurate than your tabloid headlines.


If you want to play statistics, the average number of marriages under 18 years of Tory government works out at 331,640 per year whereas for the 13 years Labour were in government the figure works out at 254,555 . Similarly, for the average number of divorces (annually) in the last Tory term it was 152, 690 against an average of 139, 414 for Labour; so no winners or losers there then. The figures do not vary much when you consider them against the married population averages either. In summary, there is a longer - term overall trend indicating a decline in the number of marriages against an overall increase in divorces (more so under the Tories when it comes to divorces) The decline in marriages has existed since the all time high figure of 470,549 in 1940. Let's also not forget that in 1930 we were seeing just 3,563 divorces per year. As always there is a disparity between different data sets with different figures being shown by her Majesty's Courts Service to those sourced via the Office of National Statistics. Why do the figures never correspond?


In springing to the the defence of lone parents I would draw you to the evidently well researched Gingerbread statistics which show just 2% are teenagers, indeed the median age is 38.1. A quarter (26 per cent) of households with dependent children are single parent families and there are 2 million single parents in Britain today, it is a figure which has remained consistent since the mid-1990’s. Around half of single parents had their children within marriage – 49 per cent are separated from marriage, divorced or widowed. 57.2 per cent of single parents are in work, up 13 percentage points since 1997. The employment rate for single parents varies depending on the age of their youngest child. Once their children are 12 or over, single parents’ employment rate is similar to, or higher than, the employment rate for mothers in couples (71 per cent of single parents whose child is 11-15 are in work). Parental separation and the resulting single parent status often leads to financial hardship. The resulting poverty may be a significant factor in explaining poorer child outcomes rather than family structure. All of which refutes a lot of the media distortion aimed at 'feckless actors in this dysfunctional drama' (Daily Mail take note).


I do wish our current government would take more notice of what those in the front-line of the advice sector are saying here. In our organisational capacities we are are naturally constrained from speaking out against our politicians because of our impartiality. There is a mood of anger building amongst those who see social injustice being dished out every day and thankfully I am afforded a means of freeing myself of constraint in speaking from a platform of my own accord. Families, be they lone parent, married or couples are increasingly bringing to our attention expressions of positively loathing the current administration for making their lives so unacceptably difficult. Our current government is making itself look anything but a good Samaritan, indeed rather than walk on the other side of the road away from the vulnerable who lays injured on the pavement, this government is making itself look as though it wants to wander across the road and giving our injured victim a damn good kicking.


Mr Cameron's efforts to help troubled families at first saw him parade Emma Harrison as his 'family champion', I need hardly remind you what happened there. More recently we hear of £100 parenting classes ran in part by an old Etonian chum of Cameron's, these are not the answers we need to hear and if you think they are you have no real understanding of the problem. This is no way to build better families or lives, it simply has to stop, it is time for politicians to stop baiting the media with their destructive headlines and realize they have a statutory & moral duty to to confront the real issues, it is time for Mr Cameron to recall how he felt on the worst day of his life for that it is the level of pain which which we see our client's experiencing everyday.

Nickd
Mylegalforum



Next up - the facts.....

[nickd]

(6) Gingerbread works to tackle the stigma around single parents by dispelling myths and labels.





Here are the Gingerbread facts about single parents


Just over a quarter (26 per cent) of households with dependent children are single parent families (1), and there are 2 million single parents in Britain today. (2) This figure has remained consistent since the mid-1990’s

Less than 2 per cent of single parents are teenagers (3)

The median age of single parents is 38.1 (4)

Around half of single parents had their children within marriage – 49 per cent are separated from marriage, divorced or widowed (5)

57.2 per cent of single parents are in work, up 13 percentage points since 1997 (6)

The employment rate for single parents varies depending on the age of their youngest child. Once their children are 12 or over, single parents’ employment rate is similar to, or higher than, the employment rate for mothers in couples (71 per cent of single parents whose child is 11-15 are in work) (7)


Who are single parents?


There are 3 million children living in a single parent household (23% per cent of all dependent children) (8)

Around 8 per cent of single parents (186,000) are fathers (9)

The average duration of single parenthood is around 5 years (10)

Only 6.5 per cent of all births are registered alone, and 10 per cent are registered to two parents who live apart (11)

Single fathers are more likely to be widowed than single mothers (12 per cent of single fathers are widowed, compared with 5 per cent of single mothers), and their children tend to be older (12)

Just under half of couples divorcing in 2009 had at least one child aged under 16. Over a fifth (21 per cent) of the children in 2009 were under five and 63 per cent were under eleven (13)

The proportion of single parent families has increased since the 1970s, but it hasn’t changed much in the last ten years

In 1971 just 8 per cent of families with children were single parent families (14)

In 1998 24 per cent of families with children were single parent families (15)

In 2011 26 per cent of families with children were single parent families (16)


Single parent families and poverty


Children in single parent families have twice the risk of living in poverty than children in couple families. Just under half (46 per cent) of children in single parent families are poor, compared to 24 per cent of children in couple families (17)

Paid work is not a guaranteed route out of poverty for single parents; the poverty rate for single parent families where the parent works part time is 25 per cent, and 19 per cent where the parent works full time (18)

The median weekly income for working single parent families doing 16 hours a week or more is £337, compared with £491 for couple families with one worker and £700 where both parents work (19)

43 per cent of single parents are social housing tenants compared to 12 per cent of couples (20)

71 per cent of all single parent renters receive housing benefit compared to 25 per cent of all couple renters (21)

Single parent households are the most likely to be in arrears on one or more household bills, mortgage or non-mortgage borrowing commitment (31 per cent) (22)

38 per cent of single parents said that money always runs out before the end of the week/month compared to 19 per cent of couples (23)

63 per cent of single parents have no savings compared to 34 per cent of couples (24)


Work and childcare


Where single parents are not working, this is often because there are health issues that make work difficult: 33 per cent of unemployed single parents have a disability or long standing illness (25) and 34 per cent have a child with a disability (26)

Over half of single parents are in work (57.2 per cent), up 13 percentage points since 1997. In the same period, the employment rate of mothers in couples has risen three percentage points to 71 per cent (27)

Single parents rely heavily on informal childcare. Of those using childcare, 46 per cent said it was informal. (28) For single parents working 16 hours a week or more 34 per cent had a childcare arrangement with the child’s grandparents, and 17 per cent had an arrangement with their ex-partner (29)

Working single parents paying for childcare are much more likely than working couples paying for childcare to find it difficult to meet childcare costs (32% compared to 22% of couples where one partner is in work, and 20% of couples where both work) (30)


Child maintenance


Only two-fifths (38 per cent) of single parents receive maintenance from their child’s other parent (31)

For all those with an agreement for child maintenance (both through the CSA and private arrangement) the median weekly amount received is £46 per family (32)

The average amount of child maintenance liable to be paid through the CSA is currently £33.50 per week (£22.50 if all cases with a weekly assessment of zero are included in the average). (33) Among parents with care in receipt of income-related benefits, the average amount is £23 (excluding cases with a weekly assessment of zero) (34)

Of single parents receiving child maintenance through the CSA, 40 per cent receive less than £10 per week, 38 per cent receive between £10 and £50 per week and 22 per cent receive more than £50 per week (35)


Family life


At least 9 per cent of single parents share the care of their child equally, or nearly equally, with the other parent (36)

The majority of children have face to face contact with their other parent. 71 per cent of resident parents said that their child had direct contact with the other parent (37)

65 per cent of those with contact said this included overnight stays, usually at least monthly (38)

Only 20 per cent of all resident parents say that their child has no contact with their other parent (39). Of these, 63 per cent said there had been no contact since the parental relationship ended (40)

Parental separation by itself is not considered predictive of poor outcomes in children (41) Parental conflict has been identified as a key mediating variable in producing negative outcomes in children. A comparison between couple families experiencing high levels of conflict with single parent families found that children fared less well in conflicted couple families, demonstrating that family functioning has a greater impact than family structure in contributing to child outcomes (42)
Parental separation and the resulting single parent status often leads to financial hardship. That resulting poverty may be a significant factor in explaining poorer child outcomes rather than family structure (43)


References


Lone parents with dependent children, January 2012, Office for National Statistics
Lone parents with dependent children, January 2012, Office for National Statistics
Figure produced for Gingerbread by the Fertility and Family Analysis Unit, Office of National Statistic and derived from the Annual Population Survey (APS), (Labour Force Survey plus boost), 2009 data
Lone parents with dependent children, January 2012, Office for National Statistics
Lone parents with dependent children, January 2012, Office for National Statistics
Work and Worklessness among households, 2010, Table 4. ONS Statistical Bulletin, September 2010.
Families with children in Britain: Findings from the 2008 Families and children study (FACS), Table 3.2. Department for Work and Pensions, 2010
Households Below Average Income, An analysis of the income distribution 1994/95 – 2009/10, Table 4.1ts. Department for Work and Pensions, 2011
Lone parents with dependent children, January 2012, Office for National Statistics
Leaving Lone Parenthood: Analysis of the repartnering patterns of lone mothers in the U.K. Skew, A., Berrington, A., Falkingham, J. 2008, on data from 2005
Derived from Households and Families, Social Trends 41, Table 6 & 7. ONS, 2011. Data from 2009
Analysis of Labour Force Survey data from June 2006 produced for Gingerbread by ONS
Divorces in England and Wales 2009. ONS Statistical Bulletin, February 2011
General Household Survey 2007, Table 3.6. ONS, 2009
General Lifestyle Survey, 2009, Table 3.6. ONS, 2011
Lone parents with dependent children, January 2012, Office for National Statistics
Households Below Average Income, An analysis of the income distribution 1994/95 – 2009/10, Table 4.14ts. Department for Work and Pensions, 2011
Households Below Average Income, An analysis of the income distribution 1994/95 – 2009/10, Table 4.11ts. Department for Work and Pensions, 2011
Family and Children Survey 2008, Table 6.3. DWP, 2010
Family and Children Survey 2008, Table 9.1. DWP, 2010
English Housing Survey, Household Report 2009 – 10, Table 3.6. Department for Communities and Local Government, 2011
Wealth in Great Britain. Main Results from the Wealth and Assets Survey 2006/08, p.108. ONS, 2009
Family and Children Survey 2008, Table 8.8. DWP, 2010
Family Resource Survey UK, 2008-2009, Table 4.10. Department for Work and Pensions, 2010
Family and Children Survey 2008, Table 3.2. DWP, 2010
Family and Children Survey 2008, Table 12.5. DWP, 2010
Work and Worklessness among households, 2010, Table 4. ONS Statistical Bulletin, September 2010.
Family and Children Survey 2008, Table 16.5. DWP, 2010
Family and Children Survey 2008, Table 16.1. DWP, 2010
Childcare and early years survey of parents 2009, p.83. NatCen/Department for Education, 2010. Research Report DFE-RR054
Family and Children Survey 2008, Table 15.1. DWP, 2010
Family and Children Survey 2008, Table 15.4b. DWP, 2010
Child Support Agency national statistics, June 2011. CMEC/DWP, 2011
Parliamentary Question, Hansard 24/03/2011, col 1242W
PQ response to Karen Buck, March 2011, Letter from Stephen Geraghty (CMEC), 17/3/11 Col 566W
Problematic contact after separation and divorce. Peacey, V., Hunt, J. Gingerbread, 2008
I’m not saying it was easy...Contact problems in separated families. Peacey, V., Hunt, J. Gingerbread, 2009
I’m not saying it was easy...Contact problems in separated families. Peacey, V., Hunt, J. Gingerbread, 2009
Problematic contact after separation and divorce. Peacey, V., Hunt, J. Gingerbread, 2008
I’m not saying it was easy . . . Contact problems in separated families. Peacey, V., Hunt, J. Gingerbread, 2009
Impact of Family Breakdown on Children’s Well-Being. Mooney, A., Oliver, C., Smith, M. Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, 2009
Impact of Family Breakdown on Children’s Well-Being. Mooney, A., Oliver, C., Smith, M. Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, 2009
Impact of Family Breakdown on Children’s Well-Being. Mooney, A., Oliver, C., Smith, M. Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, 2009

www.gingerbread.org.uk/content.aspx?CategoryID=365

[nickd]

(7) The Facts - Marriages & Divorces 1930 - 2010


HMCS Statistics for divorces 1981 - 2004


1981 ------ 176,162
1991 ------ 179,104
1996 ------ 177,970
1999 ------ 162,137
2000 ------ 157,809
2001 ------ 172,341
2002 ------ 177,223
2003 ------ 173,240
2004 ------ 167,193

Source Her Majesty's Court Service

www.999-life.com/marriage-counseling-counselor/divorce-rate-england-wales.pdf


Statistics for marriages & divorces 1930 - 2010.


First column is for marriages and second for divorces

[1930 - 1970]

1930 ------ 315,109 ------ 3,563
1940 ------ 470,549 ------ 7,755
1950 ------ 358,490 ------ 30,870
1960 ------ 343,614 ------ 23,868
1970 ------ 415,487 ------ 58,239

[1971 - 1978]

1971 ------ 404,737 ------ 74,437
1972 ------ 426,241 ------ 119,025
1973 ------ 400,435 ------ 106,003
1974 ------ 384,389 ------ 113,500
1975 ------ 380,620 ------ 120,522
1976 ------ 358,567 ------ 126,694
1977 ------ 356,954 ------ 129,053
1978 ------ 368,258 ------ 143,667


[1979 - 2010]


1979 ------ 368,853 ------ 138,706
1980 ------ 370,022 ------ 148,301
1981 ------ 351,973 ------ 145,713
1982 ------ 342,166 ------ 146,698
1983 ------ 344,334 ------ 147,479
1984 ------ 349,186 ------ 144,501
1985 ------ 346,389 ------ 160,300
1986 ------ 347,924 ------ 153,903
1987 ------ 351,761 ------ 151,007
1988 ------ 348,492 ------ 152,633
1989 ------ 346,697 ------ 150,872
1990 ------ 331,150 ------ 153,386
1991 ------ 306,756 ------ 158,745
1992 ------ 311,564 ------ 160,385
1993 ------ 299,197 ------ 165,018
1994 ------ 291,069 ------ 158,175
1995 ------ 283,012 ------ 155,499
1996 ------ 278,975 ------ 157,107
1997 ------ 272,536 ------ 146,689
1998 ------ 267,303 ------ 145,214
1999 ------ 263,515 ------ 144,556
2000 ------ 267,961 ------ 141,135
2001 ------ 249,227 ------ 143,818
2002 ------ 255,596 ------ 147,735
2003 ------ 270,109 ------ 153,065
2004 ------ 273,069 ------ 152,923
2005 ------ 247,805 ------ 141,322
2006 ------ 239,454 ------ 132,140
2007 ------ 235,367 ------ 128,131
2008 ------ 235,794 ------ 121,708
2009 ------ 231,490 ------ 113,949
2010 ------N/A-------------- 119,589



Divorces per thousand married population 1971 - 2010


1971 ------ 5.9
1972 ------ 9.5
1973 ------ 8.4
1974 ------ 9
1975 ------ 9.6
1976 ------ 10.1
1977 ------ 10.3
1978 ------ 11.6
1979 ------ 11.2
1980 ------ 12
1981 ------ 11.9
1982 ------ 12.1
1983 ------ 12.2
1984 ------ 12
1985 ------ 13.4
1986 ------ 12.9
1987 ------ 12.7
1988 ------ 12.8
1989 ------ 12.7
1990 ------ 13
1991 ------ 13.5
1992 ------ 13.9
1993 ------ 13.8
1994 ------ 14.2
1995 ------ 13.7
1996 ------ 13.6
1997 ------ 13
1998 ------ 12.9
1999 ------ 12.9
2000 ------ 12.7
2001 ------ 12.9
2002 ------ 13.3
2003 ------ 13.9
2004 ------ 14
2005 ------ 12.9
2006 ------ 12.1
2007 ------ 11.8
2008 ------ 11.2
2009 ------ 10.5
2010 ------ 11.1


* Colours denote political parties in power between 1971 - 2010

Source

docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AonYZs4MzlZbdFhqdWpPb05qY3RkcURsOTFILVBfaEE#gid=5