'Til Divorce Do We Part
On average, it takes about 2 minutes for a couple to exchange vows at the altar. In those 2 minutes, three American couples will have severed the knot permanently. Despite this, and despite how many of our classmates grew up with divorced parents, America does not land in the top 5 countries with the highest divorce rates.
In fact, the countries with the highest divorce rates are the Maldives, Kazakhstan, Russia, Moldova and Belarus. Apart from the fact that 4/5 countries are former Soviet republics, these countries have a lot more in common than you might think.
The easier and more cheaply no-fault divorce can be obtained correlates directly to higher divorce rates. So, it should come as no surprise that all five countries allow no-fault divorce. Other common contributing factors include changing attitudes towards marriage, familial interference, and infidelity.
Couples who get married younger, as is the case in Kazakhstan, are more likely to divorce than those who marry when they are in their late 20s to early 30s. Additional factors such as economic uncertainty in former Soviet republics, along with casual drinking culture leading towards widespread alcoholism and domestic violence play significant parts.
In the Maldives on the other hand, couples aren't divorcing for strife, but largely because they can. No, Maldivians aren't getting married just so they can divorce. Rather, as access to education and employment is on the rise for Maldivian women, many do not need a man in their lives to financially support them. So, in this way, a high divorce rate can be a sign that times are changing—and for the better!
