At first glance, the recent Family Court Statistics appear to show a straightforward increase in the number of divorces. But delve a little deeper and they reveal so much more.
Consider who has to pay for the divorce application fee. For sole applicants, this is usually the person that files for divorce.
Out of a total of 25,655 sole divorce applications, between April and June 2022, 15,837 were filed by women, whilst men account for just 9,102 of the divorces initiated by sole applicants.
Putting this into perspective, women were over 50 per cent more likely to end up paying the £593 application fee.
Have joint divorces made a difference?
Joint divorce applications came into effect in April 2022. So, these figures give insight into how many couples cooperated for their divorce.
There were 7,313 joint applicants made during the second quarter of the year, accounting for 22 per cent of total applications.
Also, the number of same-sex couples filing for joint divorce was lower than the number of opposite-sex couples.
When considering that same-sex marriage was only legalised in 2014 in the UK, this isn’t too surprising.
Yet, joint applications were still more likely to be filed by women. In fact, 3,999 joint opposite-sex divorces were led by women and 2,921 were led by men.
This trend also applied to same-sex couples. There were 129 female couple divorces, compared to 85 male couple divorces.
Whilst one person might take the initial step to file for divorce, people that come to a mutual agreement are more likely to split the financial burden.
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