| September 14, 2011: Divorces in Europe Doubled In the Last Decade
By April Lopez
Europe - There are 3,757 divorce cases in Georgia this year according to the statistics of Tbilisi City Court.
And this number may increase by the end of the year.
4,721 divorce cases were filed in Georgia last year and 4,030 in 2009. The number of divorces has almost doubled in the last ten years in Georgia.
That is why lawyers recommend couples to make marriage agreements to avoid future problems.
In Georgia, the age of people getting divorced is under 20 years old.
The divorce rate is less than the marriage rate. 34,452 couples were married last year and 18,836 couples got married this year.
People between the ages of 20 and 25 years old get married in Georgia. Those of 25-30 years old were the second largest number of married couples. Although this is the official statistic, specialists say the real number of divorce is higher. This is because most of the separated couples don't officially register their divorces.
Divorces can only be included in the statistical data once they are legally registered.
Everyday problems, adultery and young marriages are among the grounds for divorce in Georgia. These are the cases mostly registered in the courts, according to lawyers.
Desertion is also another reason. If a person has deserted his or her spouse willfully for at least one year, a divorce may be granted.
Other grounds for divorce include mental illness, habitual intoxication or drug addiction, conviction and imprisonment for certain crimes, pregnancy of the wife unknown to the husband at the time of the marriage, force or fraud in obtaining the marriage license, impotency at the time of marriage, mental incapacity at the time of marriage, marriage between persons who are too closely related and physical abuse.
Age at marriage for those who divorce in America;
| Age |
Women |
Men |
| Under 20 years old |
27.6% |
11.7% |
| 20 to 24 years old |
36.6% |
38.8% |
| 25 to 29 years old |
16.4% |
22.3% |
| 30 to 34 years old |
8.5 % |
11.6% |
| 35 to 39 years old |
5.1% |
6.5% |
Divorce is the legal breakup of a marriage that is why marriage agreements can make this process easier. An agreement can be made before or after a couple's wedding.
Only 11 couples have formed marriage contracts in Georgia this year. The number has increased significantly compared to last year, according to notary Nino Khoperia.
Nino Khoperia says that she has registered only 6 marriage contracts during her work experience which consists of 13 years.
She adds that forming an agreement is not a Georgian tradition but a western one. Perhaps that is why people in Georgia are not interested in forming agreements.
Furthermore, no one wants to think about divorce issues in their newly wedded time.
A marriage agreement states who will be responsible for owning and managing assets and debts during the marriage and how financial issues will be handled if the marriage breaks up.
Khoperia says that couples can always change or cancel their marriage agreement.
Lali Gotsiridze who will be married in 2 weeks says, thinking about divorce when you're about to get married is nonsense.
She adds that thinking about a marriage agreement before her wedding will bring her misfortune.
Her fiancé is also not considering a marriage contract.
On the other hand, Mari Kekelidze has 2 children from her first marriage. Her fiancé also has children from his first marriage.
Mari didn't make any marriage agreement with her first husband as her marriage wasn't registered officially.
She says she is not oriented on divorce. She is also not wishing to get divorced in the future. Mari plans to live with her husband forever but she still prefers to have some sort of guarantee not only for her, but also her children.
And she adds that it's also beneficial for her husband's children.
In a marriage agreement, at least 5 pages of script is a legal contract which summarizes each person's obligation to the other.
The biggest wedding contract costs 60 GEL and has 21 legal articles. The price of the agreement and the number of legal articles is determined by the property, which will be recorded in the contract.
The most expensive marriage agreement costs 10,000 GEL.
Before any marriage, couples should not only think about property issues but also about taking care of their children.
More divorces, fewer marriages in the EU
According to the official statistics of the European Commission, the number of marriages that took place in the EU in 2007 was 2.4 million, while around 1.2 million divorces were recorded in the same year.
The number of marriages per 1,000 inhabitants was 4.9 and the number of divorces was 2.1.
There was an overall reduction of 38% in the crude marriage rate in the EU. It decreased from 7.9 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1970 to 4.9 in 2007.
And as reflected by the increase in the crude divorce rate from 0.9 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1970 to 2.1 in 2007, marriages became less stable.
It should be noted when considering the increase in the divorce rate, that national laws did not allow divorce in several countries until recent decades. Therefore the increase number of divorces in the EU may be due to divorces happening in Member States where divorce was not previously possible.
In Cyprus and Poland, the crude marriage rate was the highest, (7.7 per 1,000 inhabitants) and (6.6) respectively. The lowest crude marriage rates were said to be in Slovenia (3.2) and Bulgaria (3.4).
In Ireland, the lowest crude divorce rates were recorded (0.8 per 1,000 inhabitants) in 2007 as well as Italy (0.9) in 2008.
There are several southern Member States that recorded relatively low crude divorce rates. Among them is Slovenia (1.1) and Greece (1.2).
Belgium recorded the highest crude divorce rates (3.0 per 1,000 inhabitants) in 2009. Lithuania and the Czech Republic followed with 2.8.
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