New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown more than 1 in 4 divorces across England and Wales now end a marriage that has lasted 20 years or more.
The analysis by Rayden Solicitors, found of all divorces granted in 2025, 27,237 ended marriages of at least 20 completed years; 25.9% of the total, up from 25.7% in 2024, and 21.3% in 2000.
The only year on record with a higher share was 1972, when 27.8% of divorces ended marriages of 20 years or more, the year following the Divorce Reform Act.
Rayden Solicitors say according to the figures, 8,753 divorces in 2025 ended marriages of 30 years or more (8.3% of total divorces), equivalent to approximately 24 divorces each day. By comparison, in 2000, just 5.8% of divorces ended marriages of the same length.
Julian Bremner, executive partner and financial arbitrator at Rayden Solicitors commented: “I think all family law solicitors have noticed an increase in the age range for parties seeking a divorce. It is not unusual these days to have meetings with clients who have been married for many decades and are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s.
“It has always been the case that people change over time. The difference now is the freedom to explore that change and not feel constrained by choices made decades earlier.
“I often hear from my older clients that they are still very content with their marriage and their partner, but they have simply reached a point where that cycle has come to an end, and they are ready for new experiences and challenges.
“It is also my experience that often these later-in-life divorces are the least acrimonious. Parties have raised children together, have worked together and have achieved milestones between them.
“There is an acknowledgement that they both have more life in them, but they do not necessarily wish to share what is yet to come with each other. These are often the easiest of people to work with as they, to borrow an expression, ‘consciously un-couple’.”
Further analysis of the ONS statistics by Stephen Rimmer Solicitors revealed that women accounted for 62% of sole divorce applications by opposite-sex couples in 2025, and their share has stayed 60% or above every year since 2021.
Stephen Rimmer Solicitors say of the 77,895 sole applications behind opposite-sex divorces last year, 48,096 came from women and 27,429 from men, with the applicant’s sex unrecorded in the remaining 2,370. Women, therefore, accounted for 62%.
Further analysed found over the five years from 2021 to 2025, women’s portion ranged from a low of 60% in 2024 to a high of 64% in 2022. In 2021, the final full year before no-fault divorce, women outnumbered men by 1.71 to one, compared with 1.75 to one in 2025.
Ben Bradshaw, partner and head of the family department at Stephen Rimmer Solicitors, said: “By the time someone comes to us to start a divorce, the problems have usually been building for a long time. Women are often the ones who have been carrying more at home, whether that’s childcare, running the household or worrying about money, and when one person bears the brunt of that for years, it’s understandable that they may be the one to take the first step.
“It’s important to remember, though, that the figures only show who applied. Many decisions to separate are reached together, even when only one person makes the application.”
