Denmark sees record number of divorces

The 19,435 couples who got divorced in 2014 is the highest single-year number in Danish history. 

 

According to Statistics Denmark, the national divorce rate jumped by 23 percent last year when compared to the previous ten-year average. 

 

Eighteen out of every 1,000 married people got divorced in 2014. Just two years prior, that number was at 14 out of 1,000. 

 

Part of the steep increase is down to law changes that now make it possible to get divorced quickly and easily online. 

 

Although the legalities of getting divorced in Denmark are now easier, couples therapist Mette Hinnerskov said that the process itself is still difficult.

 

“I am offended on behalf of all of those who have been affected by divorce when someone says that it has become too easy to get divorced. By god, it is not easy,” Hinnerskov told public broadcaster DR. 

 

Hinnerskov predicted that divorce rates would continue to rise. 

 

“I unfortunately don’t think it will get better. There is a need to reconsider what is expected out of a marriage. People of course know that things won’t be rosy everyday, but it is as if it has become to easy to say that one’s partner no longer lives up to one’s own expectations,” she said. 

 

For young people, the trend is even worse. The divorce rate for 20 to 29-year-olds was double that of other age groups and young people experienced a sharper increase in the number of divorces after the implementation of the new rules. 

 

The figures showed that divorces peak in the sixth year of marriage and that around half of all divorces occur within the first ten years. 

 

For fans of romance, there was one bit of good news in the new Statistics Denmark figures. The number of marriages in 2014 was up three percent over the year before.