Law in Charts · Marriage and divorce

Divorces per 1,000 inhabitants, since 1970

How has the divorce rate moved in nine countries over fifty years?

divorces per 1,000 inhabitants

Source: Eurostat and the OECD Family Database, Crude divorce rate (demo_ndivind; OECD Family Database via Our World in Data). Data for 1970 to 2024. What it counts, how to cite it and the data

At a glance

United States: 3.5 in 1970, 2.5 in 2021.
United Kingdom: 1.0 in 1970, 1.7 in 2020.
Germany: 1.3 in 1970, 1.6 in 2022.
France: 2.1 in 1995, 1.9 in 2016.
Japan: 0.9 in 1970, 1.5 in 2022.
Sweden: 1.6 in 1970, 2.1 in 2024.
Poland: 1.1 in 1970, 1.6 in 2024.
Bulgaria: 1.2 in 1970, 1.3 in 2024.
Russia: 4.4 in 2004, 4.7 in 2011.

The countries shown are a selection from different regions and legal traditions, chosen for the length of their data and not for any result.

What it counts

The crude divorce rate: divorces in a year per 1,000 inhabitants.

What it leaves out, and how far to trust a comparison

Changes follow changes in the law (the introduction of divorce, the end of fault-based rules, the cost and time of a divorce) as well as changes in behaviour. A line shows that the rate changed, not why. Some years are missing in the sources.

Source

Eurostat and the OECD Family Database: Crude divorce rate (demo_ndivind; OECD Family Database via Our World in Data). Source licence: CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.

Cite this chart

Free to use in teaching, articles, reports and slides, with credit. Our compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0; the source publishes the underlying data under its own licence, shown below.

Reference (APA style)

TheLawToKnow. (2026). Divorces per 1,000 inhabitants, since 1970 [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/divorce-trend. Data: Eurostat and the OECD Family Database, Crude divorce rate (demo_ndivind; OECD Family Database via Our World in Data), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/demo_ndivind/default/table (data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25).

Short credit for slides and websites

Chart: TheLawToKnow, Law in Charts (https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/divorce-trend). Data: Eurostat and the OECD Family Database.

BibTeX

@misc{divorcetrend2026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {Divorces per 1,000 inhabitants, since 1970},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/divorce-trend},
  note = {Data: Eurostat and the OECD Family Database, Crude divorce rate (demo_ndivind; OECD Family Database via Our World in Data), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/demo_ndivind/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}

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Learn more

Course: Family Law
Tool: Divorce Rates around the World

More in Marriage and divorce

General information, not legal advice. All charts.