Canadian Divorce Statistics

Updated June 2, 2010

 Do 50 per cent of all marriages end in divorce? While divorce rates have increased greatly since the introduction of Divorce Laws in 1968, actual divorce rates have been decreasing in Canada since the 1990’s.  The 50 per cent fallacy is false because it compares incompatible numbers.

• The crude divorce rate in Canada has decreased (per 100,000 population) from a high of 362.3 in 1987 to 220.7 in 2005. [1]

• In Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia, the Yukon and Nunavut the total number of new divorce cases has declined 6 per cent over the four year period ending in 3008/2009. [2]
  

• The percentage of marriages in a given year that will end in divorce before their 30th wedding anniversary has increased slightly from 36.1 per cent in 1998 to 37.9 per cent in 2004. [3]

• In 2003, the risk of divorce decreased slowly the longer a couple stayed married beyond three years. [4]

• The divorce rate for first marriages is likely lower; “first marriages have a 67% chance of lasting a lifetime.” [5]

• “20% of all divorces in Canada are a repeat divorce for at least one of the spouses.” [6]

• In 2002, the average age at divorce was 43.1 for men and 40.5 for women. [7]

• On average, men who divorced in 2002 were married at the age of 28.9, while women had married at the age of 26.3. [8]

Endnotes