More Divorces In 2008 Than Previously Thought

16 April 2009

There were 11,538 divorces in Scotland in 2008, the Registrar General announced today - over 2,000 more than the provisional figure which was announced on 12 March. The new figure represented a fall of about 1,200 from the number in 2007, compared to a drop of around 3,400 according to the provisional statistics.

"This revision is much larger than the changes which are usually necessary to the provisional figures, so I am announcing it at once, rather than waiting until I publish my Annual Report in August" Registrar General Duncan Macniven said. "While my department was dealing with a relatively minor problem which affected the number of divorces at one of the smaller courts, we realised that over 2,000 divorces granted in 2008 had been wrongly counted in 2009.”

"We had expected a fall in the number of divorces in 2008, because the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 reduced separation periods before divorce, causing an increase in divorces in 2006 followed by reductions in 2007 and 2008. The corrected figure shows that there was indeed a reduction in 2008, although the fall was smaller than the provisional figure had suggested. The average annual number of divorces in the three years after the law was changed was 12,442, which is more than 10% up on the average level of just over 11,000 divorces per year during the 3 years before the change.

“We will inform users of our statistics, put an explanation on our website and correct the statistics in future publications."