The UK, Australia, and the USA have shown a strikingly common trend over the past two years. The divorce rates have fallen in all three countries, and so have marriage rates. In Australia, the marriage rates have reached the lowest in a century! In all three countries, cohabitation is the word of the day. In Cuba (divorce rate 3.54 per 100 persons), cohabitation has reached rampant levels. In France, the rate is 2 per 100. But France stands apart from the others in the way the divorces are tackled. Disputed divorce cases constitute 43% of those filed, only 13% are unilateral and with consent divorce. Women invoke some 95% of the cases, and the men do not take it lying down either.



Germany at 2.3 divorces per 100, seems to have stabilised somewhat. There was a phase when women were changing their lifestyles drastically, and there was an obvious hue and cry about it all. Working women were being blamed strongly for being family-breakers, and extremist groups were perpetrating hate crimes against them. There was also a burst of same sex marriages, but this was just a fleeting trend, so it ended suddenly too.

While the French were fighting out their passionate (and costly) battles in the court, and Germany was getting confused at the crossroads, Australia was undergoing some changes too. The marriage slump was first to hit this country. As far back as 2000, Australian youth were voicing their opinion about their parents? marriages. A social attitudes and behavioural studies survey done around this time reveals that starting from early teen to the mid-twenties, young people were losing faith in the institution of marriage in general. The other term that was coming up strongly in vogue was ?repartnering?. This indicated that a divorcee did not stay single too long and having a number of relations was becoming more and more commonplace.

The turn of the century was also the time when Christian groups in the USA began active campaigning against their old enemies ? the feminists. Both parties were vocal and opinionated. The Church felt that feminists were bringing a plague of divorces on the nation, while feminists felt that the Church was trying to stifle people into unhappy and dead marriages.

In all these countries, the winning trend seems to be cohabitation. Many social scientists now feel that this is an evolved version of marriage itself. In the UK, cohabitation laws are being revised, and still badly need a lot of reworking. Given that a large number of children are born out of wedlock ? and voluntarily so every year ? the inheritance laws specially need thorough overhauling.

The Far East

Things are still quiet out there. China is cruising along at an idealistic 0.42 divorces per 100 persons; Japan is getting hyper at 1.92 per 100. But in Singapore, 9 out of 1000 marriages were falling apart. This is not only strange in the context of its neighbours (Singapore's divorce rates seem outlandish compared to Malaysia and Indonesia both), but there is also a question mark because Singapore is an Islamic nation. Its statistics have created a religious furore as well. The corrupting influence of the West is being cited by angry clerics, but one fears it is something much more deep-seated than just that.

Japan's wife-beating tendencies are thankfully being phased out. But Japanese women are going through a strange time of flux as they are deeply traditional and outrageously modern at the same time.

India has pretty low divorce rates, and so do the neighbouring nations of Pakistan and Bangladesh, but strangely enough, the tiny island of Sri Lanka is beginning to show high marital separation statistics. Cohabitation is catching on in India as well.

The conclusion? None, for there is no average rule for emotions.