South Africa's divorce rate has shown a drop, according to marriage and divorce figures released by Stats SA in 2005. There were 28 587 divorces in 2003, compared with 31 370 the year before. Marriages have shown a marginal increase — there were 178 689 recorded marriages in 2003, 1 487 more than in 2002. Other patterns from the Stats SA figures were that whites generally got divorced between the ages of 30 and 34, and blacks mainly between the ages of 40 and 44. The figures also revealed that most marriages broke down in the first four years.
The divorce breakdown was as follows: Whites (11 890); Blacks (6 637); Coloureds (3 394) and Indians (1 486). Gauteng had the highest divorce rate (797 per 100 000 married couples) and the Eastern Cape the lowest (135 per 100 000 married couples). Experts agreed that white couples were more prone to divorce because they separated themselves from the support base of their extended families.
