South Africa - Divorce Statistics
The 2015 divorce data reported were based on 25 260 completed divorce forms that Stats SA received and processed by the end of December 2016.
In 2015, 25 260 completed divorce forms were processed indicating an increase of 2,3% processed in 2014. There were more female than male plaintiffs. The median ages at divorce in 2015 were 44 years for men and 40 years for women. About 45,4% of the 2015 divorces came from marriages that lasted less than 10 years. In 2015, there were 14 045 (55,6%) divorces with children aged less than 18 years affected. Couples from the white population group dominated the number of divorces from 2003 to 2007; thereafter, black African couples had the highest number of divorces up until 2015. In 2003, 40,0% of the divorcees were from the white population group whereas 24,3% came from the black African population group. By 2015, 42,9% of the divorcees were from the black African population group and 26,1% from the white population group. The proportions of the divorcees from the coloured and the Indian/Asian population groups were quite invariable during the thirteen-year period.
Characteristics of plaintiffs
The 2015 data presented show that more wives than husbands, 13 038 (51,6%) women compared to 8 538 (33,8%) initiated divorce and 2 171 (8,6%) divorces were initiated by both husband and wife.
Except for women from the black African population who had a lower proportion of plaintiffs (45,3%), the proportion of women plaintiffs from the other population groups was above 50,0%. The proportion of women plaintiffs for the white population group, Indian/Asian population group and coloured population group were 58,8%, 55,7% and 54,1% respectively.
The provincial distribution indicates that more people from Gauteng divorced followed by the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. In total, 61,5% of divorces granted in 2015 were from these three provinces.
Number of times married
The 2015 divorce cases for both men and women were mainly from individuals who had married once. More than 80,0% of divorces for men and women were from first-time marriages compared to 12,0% of men and 10,2% of women from second-time marriages. Almost 2,0% of men and women were getting divorced for at least the third time.
Age at the time of divorce
The median ages at the time of divorce in 2015 were 44 years for males and 40 years for females, indicating that generally, divorced males were older than divorced females, with a difference of about four years. The pattern of median ages in 2015 by population group shows that the highest median age of 44 years occurred among black African and white males, while the lowest median ages occurred among females from the Indian/Asian and 'other' population groups, at 39 and 36 years respectively. The difference in the median ages at the time of divorce between males and females was greater in the ‘other’ population group (six years) compared to the black African, coloured, Indian/Asian and white population groups. Although there were differences in the ages at which most men and women from the various population groups divorced, the age patterns were quite similar. The data reveal that there were fewer divorces among the younger (less than 25 years old) and the older (65 years and older) divorcees. For males, the peak age group at divorce was 40 to 44 for all population groups, except for the coloured population group where the highest peak was from the age group 45 to 49 years. In the case of females, the peak age group for coloured and white population groups was 40 to 44 years and the peak for black African and Indian/Asian population groups was 35 to 39 years.
Duration of marriage of divorcing couples
27,6% of divorces among males were for marriages that lasted between five and nine years. This group is followed by marriages that lasted between ten and fourteen years 18,8% and marriages that lasted for less than five years 17,8%. Thus 45,4% of the divorces in 2015 were marriages that lasted for less than 10 years. According to the results, irrespective of the population group, the highest proportion of divorces occurred to couples who had been married for five to nine years. Thus 32,3% of divorces from the black African; 26,1% from white; 24,9% from coloured and 23,7% from Indian/Asian population groups were marriages that lasted between five and nine years. The white population had the highest proportion 23,6% of divorces that occurred in the first five years. The proportion of divorces in all population groups declined as the duration of marriage increased, with a significant decline being observed after nine years of marriage.
Divorces involving couples with minor children
In 2015, 55,6% of the divorces had children younger than 18 years. The coloured and the white population groups had the highest and lowest proportion of divorces involving couples with children with 63,1% and the 47,2% respectively. 45,6% of children affected by divorce were from the black African population group; 21,6% from the white population group; 20,1% from the coloured population group and 5,9% from the Indian/Asian population group.
Below are the latest statistics:
| p03072015.pdf |
| divorce_statistics__south_africa__-_2014.pdf |
| divorce_statistics__south_africa__-_2013.pdf |
| divorce_statistics_south_africa_2012.pdf |
| divorce_statistics_south_africa_-_2011.pdf |
| divorce_statistics_south_africa_-_2010.pdf |
| divorce_statistics_south_africa_-_2009.pdf |
| divorce_statistics_south_africa_-_2008.pdf |
