Marriage and Divorce

Globally, marriage rates are declining, and the age at which the average man or woman becomes married is rising.¹ Belgium currently holds the highest divorce rate at 71 percent, Portugal follows with 68 percent, then Hungary with 67 percent, the Czech Republic with 66 percent, Spain at 61 percent, Luxembourg with 60 percent, Estonia at 58 percent, Cuba with 56 percent, France at 55 percent and the United States with 53 percent.² In many Nordic nations, the average age of marriage is extremely high as marriages are being delayed, or replaced altogether with cohabitation or partnership. In Sweden, the average woman is married when she is 34 years old whereas the average woman is married at 30 in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations.³ The countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage, defined as marriage before the age of 18, are Niger, the Central African Republic, Chad, Bangladesh, Guinea, Mali, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, and Malawi — all with over 50 percent of their young women having been married before turning 18.⁴ Over 650 million of women worldwide were married as children.⁵