Couples in their 20s are the group most at risk from divorce, new figures from the UK show. 
It is being suggested that celebrity culture is fueling a rise in so-called “starter marriages” that end within five years.
The overall number of divorces in England and Wales in 2009 fell to its lowest level since 1974, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics. However, the number of marriages is also at a historic low.
The divorce rate among 25-29 year-olds was twice the average across all age groups, however.
The new data also showed that couples in 2009 spent less time trying to fix their relationships before turning to the divorce courts than during the previous year.
The data from confirms the trend of recent years, with another reduction in the number of divorces registered in England and Wales.
This was partly due to fewer couples choosing to marry than in previous generations, with almost half of children now born to unmarried parents.
There have been suggestions that the recession was one of the main reasons for the fall in the number of couples getting divorced. Falling property prices meant that many couples could not afford to live apart.
However, the long-term figures showed that marriage survival rates are lower than a generation ago, with under-30s the most likely age group to split up.
Jenny North, head of policy at Relate, said attitudes to marriage and divorce had changed. “People obviously don’t see divorce as the cataclysmic event that they might have in the past,” she said.
“Most people still find it extremely distressing, but certainly the concept of the ‘starter marriage’ – and the idea that if you are going to get divorced, do it before you have kids – has become more widely accepted.”
The so-called “starter marriage” is a concept that has been used to describe celebrities’ first marriages that end within five years, and often before the birth of children, she said.
“It is contrary to what everyone expects their marriage to be like but obviously it is the case that a lot of people do go on to have more than one marriage these days.
“Society has changed and people’s lives change more often. People go through more life changes, more career changes now, so it’s not surprising that people are less stable than they used to be.”
One in three marriages now ends before reaching the 15th wedding anniversary, compared with one in five a generation ago, according to the ONS figures. The average age at divorce rose in 2009, with divorcee men typically 44 and women 41-and-a-half.
There were 114,000 divorces registered in England and Wales in 2009, a fall of 6.4% on the previous year. There was also a reduction in the proportion of married couples divorcing, with the rate falling to an average of 10.5 people divorcing out of every 1,000 married individuals, from 11.2 per 1,000 in 2008.
Among 25 to 29 year-olds, however, the divorce rate was twice as high, with 21.7 men and 25.1 women per 1,000 in the age group divorcing in 2009.
