Italy sees spike in divorce, separation
IMPORTANT UPDATE - Every media story I've seen on this, and the shorter versions of the government report itself, speak of divorces and separations per marriage without specifying whether that means per existing marriage or in comparison to weddings celebrated in that same, single year. But on digging deep into the longer version of an accompanying report on marriage, it is the latter. That diminishes the implications of this news. The Italian government did a very thorough job - they seem to be far more thorough and well-funded than American governments both in gathering original data and analysing it - but I really have to question why the authors thought that that kind of rate was more relevant than rates per capita or per existing marriage. It's an apples-oranges comparison, because the divorces in a given year are not from marriages formed that year - they are in 18-year marriages, on average! And while the doubling of absolute numbers of divorces since 1995 is dramatic enough, this annual ratio is also inflated by the decline in absolute numbers of weddings from about 290,000 to 230,000 in that time.
Media version: Between 1995 and 2009, both rates approximately doubled, with the number of divorces leaping from 80 to 181 for every 1,000 weddings; and the number of separations rising from 158 to 297. Italy has historically had a low divorce rate.
[Citing an article in ANSA English which says little more, except for information on the rate of increase, and which says the information is from a new report from Istat, the national statistics agency.]
The report has much information about the numbers of children involved in divorce and separation. It also says that at the time a divorce or separation case is filed, the median length of marriage for divorcing couples is 18 years; for separating ones, 15 years. Median age at divorce is 47 for men; 43 for women; at separation, 45 and 41 respectively, thus showing that Italians follow the Chinese restaurant menu horoscope rule for marriage.
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