The number of marriages in Russia has dropped to its lowest level since the beginning of the century. Statistical study of marriages and divorces in Russia Reasons for getting married statistics

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Unfortunately, modern realities are such that marriages fall apart very quickly. Some couples, having just gotten married, already... According to statistics, the picture is truly depressing, because every second marriage is under threat. Perhaps this is why young people do not seek to officially register their relationships, preferring ordinary cohabitation.

At the same time, such relationships do not entail rights and obligations, which makes the parties absolutely defenseless from the point of view of legislation. So, what are the statistics of marriages and divorces in Russia as of 2018?

Number of broken marriages

In recent years, the number of registered marriages has been falling markedly. Moreover, half of them end in the dissolution of the union for the spouses. A striking example of this is 2017, in which about a thousand cases of registration of unions were recorded, and 611 thousand divorces, which is about 58%.

Most often, couples who do not have children and have been in a relationship for more than five but less than nine years separate. However, having a child also does not guarantee spouses happy life. The same can be said about families with a rich history. Thus, over the past year, 19% of couples who lived together for more than 10 years broke up. This is not much less than in a situation with a relationship that lasted a couple of years - 20%.

According to excerpts from Rosstat, 2016 was marked by the lowest number of registered unions and the number of divorces over the past ten years - 985.8 and 608.3 thousand, respectively.

At the same time, in terms of the percentage of termination of relations and entry into them, the situation worsened - 61.7%. A year earlier, the same figure was only 52.7%. It is worth noting that since the beginning of the nineties, the maximum number of applications related to divorce and ending in divorce was recorded in 2002 - 854 thousand.

Important! According to statistics, citizens most often choose the summer period in order to seal their relationships, and, as a rule, get divorced in the spring

The least likely to get divorced are partners who celebrated their porcelain anniversary or entered into a relationship less than a year ago. In 2017, 13.2% and 4.7% of such divorces were recorded, respectively.

Number of divorces from 2010 to the present time

Domestic registry offices maintain detailed statistics related to the issues of concluding a union between couples. Unfortunately, she says that partners are increasingly less likely to resort to official registration of the union, preferring civil marriage. At the same time, the gap between the registration of marriages and their dissolution is rapidly melting.

The popularity of cohabitation is explained by the lack of understanding on the part of partners of their true position. Due to the refusal to legitimize their relationship, they are in limbo, without rights and responsibilities towards each other. Simply, such relationships are not serious and cannot be considered a full-fledged family one.

According to official data, the situation regarding divorces and marriages in the country is pessimistic. This is evidenced by the summary table:

Number of marriages, thousand	Number of divorces, thousand	Ratio of divorces and marriages as a percentage

In accordance with the data presented, we can conclude that the situation with divorces in the country is worsening.

In addition, it is important to know that most often couples break off their relationships, the age of the partners in which is in the range from 18 to 35 years. However, if the spouses entered into a union before they reached the age of thirty, then the risk of divorce is noticeably reduced. This can be explained by the fact that with age, the parties have mutual claims due to increased demands on each other.

Experts concluded that this situation arose due to the registration of relationships between citizens born in the early nineties. At the same time, this generation spent their childhood in unfavorable conditions, which left an imprint on their behavior today. At the same time, there are many factors that negatively affect the demographic situation.

Reasons for divorce

The decrease in the number of marriages is directly related to a number of circumstances. According to the surveys conducted, the main ones are:

alcohol and drug abuse - 41%;
lack of own apartment - 26%;
interference in the lives of spouses by their relatives - 14%;
absence of a child - 8%;
frequent absence of one of the spouses from home (business trips, shifts, etc.) - 6%;
criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment of a partner - 2%.
severe illnesses - 1%.

By the way, in addition to the indicated reasons, the problem of human dependence on social networks is currently rapidly gaining weight.

Thus, experts in the field of psychology made a calculation that showed that about 15% of marriages are destroyed due to one of the spouses being addicted to the Internet.

This figure will undoubtedly increase due to the rapid development of information technology.

Other circumstances, on the contrary, reduce the likelihood of spouses divorcing. These include:
presence of common children (35%);
property disputes that may deprive the parties of the valuables they need (30%);
financial dependence of one of the partners (22%);

disagreement with drastic measures related to the severance of relations (18%).

Which partner is more likely to file for divorce? According to publicly available data, about 68% of claims come from women who have not achieved retirement age

. Moreover, in Moscow this figure reaches as much as 80%. However, after 50 years, most often spouses end their relationship. In some cases, this is associated with children reaching adulthood. Thus, the man avoids paying alimony and looks for new love. These figures are explained very simply. Women have greater demands on relationships than their husbands. If the situation does not suit them, then they are ready to resolve it with everyone accessible ways

, right up to divorce.

What can a divorce entail?

Divorce often brings not only freedom, but also serious health problems. Thanks to research conducted by scientists, it became known that people who end their relationship with a partner begin to get sick much more often, and their life expectancy is reduced. Despite repeated marriages, not everyone manages to find happiness. Thus, of the women who remarried (27%), only 15% consider themselves happy. Men, on the contrary, create new family

easily. Experts note that remarried people are happy in 73% of cases.

Conclusion

Family plays an important role in the life of every person, and divorce often becomes not only a turning point in personal life, but also changes social status. According to statistics, family breakdown almost always has a negative impact on all areas of life. But despite this, every year half of marriages break up.

Psychologists and sociologists, using statistical data from various segments of the population who are married, are trying to find the reasons for the breakdown of families. But the statistics are a little distorted, since in Lately Many couples refuse to officially enter into a marriage.

Since 1970, the number of divorces in Russia has increased significantly, and according to statistics, it is currently approximately 140 thousand per year. Registry office statistics show that every year there are fewer and fewer official registrations, and the position of civil unions, on the contrary, is strengthening.

Statistics indicate that today every second marriage ends in divorce. Just 10 years ago, every third union fell apart. The increase in divorces is almost one and a half times! But these are unhappy children, deprived of a full-fledged family and the spouses’ hopes for joint family happiness are dashed. According to statistics, divorces by years of marital life are distributed as follows:

3.6% – up to 1 year;
16% – 1-2 years;
18% – 3-4 years;
28% – 5-9 years;
22% – 10-19 years;
12.4% -20 years or more.

It turns out that in the first 4 years of family life, divorce occurs in approximately 40% of couples. Statistics also show that the most responsible and important period in the life of a family occurs when spouses are between 20 and 30 years old. Statistics indicate that marriages concluded before 30 years of age are twice as durable and promising as unions registered between spouses after 30 years of age. This is due to the fact that it is easier for people under 30 to get used to and get used to each other.

As it turns out, most divorces occur between the ages of 18-35. The divorce rate increases sharply at age 25. During a divorce, the court gives the spouses time to think, in approximately 64% of cases, but only 7% of married couples withdraw the application for divorce.

So, below we will look in detail:

entering into early unequal marriages;
entering into civil marriages;
remarriages;
entering into interethnic marriages and with foreigners;
marriages on the fly.

Statistics of early unions

Legally, early marriage is a union concluded between people who have not reached legal age. Also, early marriages include marriages that take place before the standard age, that is, at 18-20 years old. According to statistics, the main reasons for joining an early union are:

by flight;
strong passion, falling in love;
the desire to free yourself from excessive parental care.

According to statistics, over the past 5 years the number of early marriages (before 18 years of age) has decreased significantly. But despite this, the problem of early marriages remained. Modern society does not support such families, because according to statistics they have no future. Statistics indicate that in 90% of cases, early unions end in divorce, with most families breaking up after a year life together.

Statistics of remarriages

According to statistics, repeated marital ties are more stable than first ones. This is explained by the accumulated experience from past marriages, greater tolerance towards each other, as well as the absence of illusions about family life (a real understanding of what marriage is). Women need about 1 year to restore their psychological state and join a new family, and men about 1.5-2 years.

According to statistics, after the dissolution of the first union, people register a second one after 2-3 years. To register a second union, people have the following motives:

the desire to acquire comfort and peace of mind;
satisfaction of needs for physical and emotional love;
improvement of living conditions and material condition.

Repeated marriages are very diverse; they can be divided into the following types:

a divorced man, whose children live with his ex-wife, gets together with a divorced woman with children.
a divorced man gets together with a younger man, free woman without children.
return unions.
marriage between a widower and a widower.

Navigating a remarried relationship can be difficult for the following reasons:

embarrassment and awkwardness at the beginning of life together;
fear of reliving separation and disappointment;
fear of intimacy due to difficult past family relationships;
feeling of guilt towards children;
the child does not accept the parent’s new relationship. This problem is especially relevant in cases where the former spouse has died.

Statistics of interethnic marriages

Statistics indicate that today the number of interethnic marriages is growing rapidly. This trend is especially noticeable in Moscow. According to statistics, in 1912, about 95% of Muscovites were “White” Russians or ethnic Russians, and by 2000 the Russian population in Moscow had dropped to 89%. If mixed marriages will be registered at the same pace, then by 2025, the number of Russians will be reduced to 73%.

According to statistics, today approximately 25% of the population Russian Federation lives in multinational families, which worries many Russians. Last year alone, about 50,000 interethnic marriages were registered in Moscow. In addition, it is worth noting that mixed marriages with nearby ethnic groups are growing in number, while mixed marriages with representatives of distant ethnic groups are falling. Various surveys have been conducted on the topic of interethnic unions.

The importance of nationality when choosing a wife/husband

Mixed marriages can be successful only if the spouses can resolve among themselves issues regarding different mentalities and upbringings.

Civil marriage statistics

A civil marriage is a marriage without registration in the registry office, in fact it is considered cohabitation. Statistics in Russia have shown that 85% of men living in a civil marriage consider themselves single, and of women only 8% consider themselves unmarried.

According to statistics, the critical date civil marriage is the milestone of 4 years. In the future, such relationships have virtually no chance of developing into an official union. 64% of children born in a civil marriage witness the wedding of their parents.

According to statistics, in Russia 40% of couples live in a civil marriage. An interesting survey was recently conducted, which showed that every third man marries at the request of his other half, every fourth by tradition, and only every tenth - of his own free will and out of love.

Civil marriage and registration of relationships

According to statistics, living in a civil union for 1 year pushes 18% of couples into official marriage, for 2 years - 20%, for 3 years - 17%. The main reason for registering a marriage is planning a child. In Russia, according to statistics, couples who formalized their relationship after living in a civil marriage are divorced 30% less often than spouses who did not live together before their official marriage.

Unequal marriage statistics

Sociologists have published interesting statistics - today, marriages between peers are concluded in only 28% of couples. Nowadays, there are more and more unequal marriages, and the age difference can reach 20 years, both in the direction of the wife and in the direction of the husband. According to statistics, in Russia every 12 marriages are unequal.

Statistics of marriages with foreigners

According to statistics, in Russia every 10 people marry a foreigner. But in 80-85% of marriages with foreigners, they break up due to deportation, threat of visa revocation and physical violence. And earlier Russian girls considered marriage with a foreigner as a “ticket to beautiful life“Now, with the improvement of the socio-economic situation in the country, foreign grooms are not so attractive, and marriages are concluded less frequently. Things are even worse in marriages with foreigners.

Marriages by chance

Statistics in Russia indicate that a third of marriages are registered due to miscarriage. But, unfortunately, family ties most often fall apart over time, and in most cases the initiator of divorce is the man. Of course, there are also happy families by birth, here, first of all, everything depends on the relationship in the couple. If the couple had only passion, then the marriage is practically doomed to divorce.

Family life in this case is characterized by fragility. Very often, both a man and a woman who get married by chance become disappointed in family life, get divorced, or look for love on the side. A marriage without love and mutual respect cannot be successful, because it is not without reason that they say that you cannot keep a man with a child.

Therefore, registering marriages by appointment often does not bring comfort and family coziness to either the man or the woman.

According to statistics, among people living in a common-law family, marriage by marriage is often successful. After all, the partners already have a serious and long-term relationship, they have built their own way of life and know how to solve problems that arise among themselves. In this case, a marriage by marriage is practically no different from an ordinary marriage.

The strongest marriages in Russia - statistics

According to statistics, out of 20 marriages for love, 10-11 are unsuccessful, out of 20 marriages of convenience, only 7 are unsuccessful, and out of 20 couples married solely for reason, only 4-5 families get divorced. Based on statistics, we can conclude that love is not a guarantee of a strong and happy union, and the strongest families are created based on reason.

A recent survey showed that in love marriages:

46% – still love their partner;
18% - believe that only a habit remains;
14% - together because of common interests and views;
12% - maintain the union out of love for their joint children;
10% – unites physical proximity.

Statistics of adultery

In Russia, statistics on adultery are as follows:

41% of wives cheated on their husbands at least once;

59% of husbands do not deny cheating.

The main motives for cheating include:

fading feelings for your spouse;
desire for novelty;
friends' lifestyle;
revenge with treason for treason;
rude attitude of a partner;
sexual dissatisfaction;
long absence of a partner;
feeling of one's own attractiveness;
cheating under the influence of alcohol.

According to statistics, lovers most often meet:

At work;
on a rest;
business trip;
at place of residence (neighbors).

By the way, the presence of infidelity in the family, according to statistics, leads to divorce in 15% of cases.

Cheating statistics - some interesting facts

According to recent studies, the majority of unfaithful husbands consider their marriage happy and successful, and the majority of unfaithful wives consider their family life unhappy.
Most male infidelities are associated with a thirst for fresh sexual sensations, and most female infidelities are associated with emotional level. 81% of women's infidelities begin with friendships.
U married men As a rule, there are no long-term betrayals. They prefer numerous and short-term relationships, only for sex. Female cheating just for the sake of sex practically never happens; as a rule, a wife cheats not only in body, but also in soul with a regular partner-lover.
Statistics indicate that the reason for male infidelity mainly lies in sexual dissatisfaction, and the reason for female infidelity is emotional.

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Today, divorce has become a social norm, and every year the number of people who are ready to save an unsuccessful marriage at any cost is decreasing. According to sociologists' research, the number of divorces is growing all over the world. Scientists analyzed data for 40 years in 84 countries and came to the conclusion that the rate of divorce during this time has doubled. At the same time, the statistics for Russia and the CIS countries are not at all reassuring: approximately half of family unions break up.

website I decided to figure out why there are so many divorces now and what to do about it.

The most common causes of divorce from a statistical point of view

However, in addition to these traditional and fairly obvious reasons for divorce, there are also others due to modern realities. Below we will try to understand in more detail what can lead to family breakdown in the 21st century.

Today you can easily survive alone

The institution of family is inevitably influenced by new economic realities. Today, when the world has entered a new era of post-industrial society, man for the first time has acquired the ability to live comfortably alone. Before this, the family was created for joint survival. Man of the pre-industrial and even industrial era could not feed himself. By definition, a family is a joint household. So now it has become possible to conduct it without anyone’s help: both a man and a woman in modern world

They can easily earn their own living. That is why single people - people who run their households on their own - have become an alternative to families.

This is a completely new concept in the history of mankind. And the point here is not so much that we have become more self-centered. We just had this opportunity.

So people are no longer held back in marriage by the potential financial difficulties that await them in the event of divorce. It is logical that if a woman works, she is not afraid of being left without a livelihood.

Long life expectancy and serial monogamy There is still an unspoken opinion in society that if you have a family, then it’s for life. However, throughout the world, life expectancy is increasing compared even to the 20th century, and this significantly affects family relationships

. Let's imagine an average couple about to get married.

Let's say the bride is 25-28 years old, and the groom is 28-32. It’s quite difficult to imagine that they will live together for 40-45 years, because everything can change dramatically. People have different goals or aspirations, so it is impossible to predict in advance what they will be doing in 20-30 years. That is, the current model of relationships is often as follows: people get married, have children, raise them to a certain age and get divorced.

The fact is that, despite the sexual revolution and the affirmation of the principle of freedom of relationships between people, polyamory and infidelity are still not welcomed and are not the choice of most couples. People want fidelity in relationships and in family. True, not for the rest of my life. Once-for-all marriages are becoming a rare occurrence, since such a model was acceptable when people died at a fairly young age by modern standards.

Thus, serial monogamy is becoming a common practice for modern people: spouses do not cheat on each other, they simply end the relationship and begin new life with someone else.

We have become more demanding of our partners

In the 21st century, we have become more critical when it comes to our spouses and relationships in general. There are several reasons for this.

Firstly, since we now need relationships not for survival, but for pleasure, we want to become better next to our loved one.

The social status and ambitions of a husband or wife are also important to us. If we do not see mutual development in marriage and understand that we no longer inspire each other, then we divorce and look for a more suitable person. Secondly, our way of life has changed, which has a significant impact on the institution of family. In the modern world, we have begun to spend more time together and communicate much more closely.

This is due to a change in the concept of work and the working day. Political scientist Ekaterina Shulman believes that people in the 20th century saw each other much less often than in the 21st century. How was it before? A man goes to work early in the morning and returns late in the evening, and the woman also had to do housework. Interaction was minimal. Of course, this style of co-living is still common, but today, especially in large cities, the concept of work has become quite vague. Increasingly, people are switching to remote or partially remote work, opening their own startup or small business, and the cleaning can be done by a cleaning service. Accordingly, it becomes extremely important for a person with whom he lives and spends his leisure time.

Therefore, the value of family ties is growing, but so are the demands on each other.

More dating opportunities

Since 1995, the divorce rate has not fallen below 600 thousand cases per year, while the number of marriages has been slowly declining. About half of all marriages break up, and this figure is constantly increasing.

General indicators for Russia over the past 5 years

In the world, it is customary to use such an indicator in recording marriages and divorces as the number of cases per 1000 people.

Divorce statistics in Russia as a percentage show how many marriages are formed or broken up annually in relation to the total number of citizens of the country.

And the table below shows that this figure fluctuates from year to year within the range of 4.2 – 4.7 cases per thousand people.

Is this too much? Compared to 2001-2003, when it was greatest number divorces in the country, marriages began to break up less frequently. However, the difference is negligible, and for more than 10 years, a record number of marriages have been dissolved in the country.

Over the past five years, Russia has been among the top ten countries in the world showing the highest number of divorces.

Divorce statistics in Russia over the past 5 years:

Years	Number of units	Number of divorces per 1000 people
2011	669376	4,7
2012	644101	4,5
2013	667971	4,7
2014 2)	693730	4,7
2015	611646	4,2

Statistics of marriages in Russia over the past 5 years:

Years	Number of units	Number of marriages per 1000 people
2011	1316011	9,2
2012	1213598	8,5
2013	1225501	8,5
2014 2)	1225985	8,4
2015	1161068	7,9

2) Data from 2014 are calculated taking into account the population of the Crimean district.

Divorce statistics in Russia by year in tables

While there is some stability in general indicators, data on the reasons for divorce, the situation in the regions and other characteristics are constantly changing.

If earlier experts often referred to a large number early marriages, which in their opinion led to a large number of divorces, now there are fewer and fewer such marriages. Meanwhile, the number of divorces is not falling.

However, even in these sad figures, trends towards stabilization and improvement of the position of the family institution in the country are visible.

For reasons

During a divorce, the initiator of the process indicates the reason why he wants. And this data is taken into account in statistics. However, these reasons are not always true, which is why sociological services at the state and non-state level often conduct social surveys on this topic.

Reasons for divorce:

Reasons for divorce	Approximate percentage of the total number of divorces, %
Dependence of one of the spouses on alcohol or drugs	40
Lack of comfortable living conditions (own housing, livelihood)	23
Interference of relatives in family life	14
Discrepancy between life interests, lifestyle and basic concepts	9
Absence of children due to the fault of one of the spouses	6
Separate living (frequent business trips, shift work and work in other cities of one of the spouses)	6
Stay in prison, serious long-term illness of one of the spouses and other reasons	3

There are also such serious problems as:

spouse aggression;
infidelity;
rudeness and neglect of a partner.

Many respondents consider them to be a direct consequence of the reasons indicated in the table.

In surveys, divorced people often report that they initially knew about potential problems, for example, about the future spouse’s addiction to alcohol, lack of prospects for buying a home, difficult traveling work, and others.

However, they took these difficulties lightly, which subsequently led to divorce.

The factors that really influence the situation in the family are: sexual dissatisfaction of one of the partners (most often men complain about this), infidelity, indifference of the partner, lack of common goals.

In a situation where the family is not the only source of survival, people are increasingly thinking about the importance of personal comfort in relationships.

By region of the Russian Federation

If we consider the situation by region, then the Central Region achieves the highest rates, while the least number of divorces is in such republics as Chechen, Ingush and Tatarstan. However, we are talking about the number of divorces in general, without comparison with other indicators.

And only in the North Caucasus Federal District the indicator is significantly lower. This is due to the fact that most of the population is Muslim, where divorce is traditionally not encouraged.

Number of divorces by federal district:

Name of the federal district	Number of divorces in 2015	Number of inhabitants, thousand	Number of divorces per 1000 inhabitants, %
Central Federal District*	118083	26894	4,3
Northwestern Federal District	63216	13847	4,5
Southern Federal District	61392	14005	4,3
North Caucasus Federal District	22673	9659	2,3
Volga Federal District	117207	29717	3,9
Ural Federal District	59015	12276	4,8
Siberian Federal District	87662	19313	4,5
Far Eastern Federal District	31710	6211	5,1
Crimean Federal District	7303	2294	3,1

*Data for Moscow is not included in these statistics

Separately, we can highlight the “record holders” in this area: the Leningrad region leads in the number of divorces, and the Republic of Chechnya has the lowest rate when comparing the number of divorces and marriages concluded in 2015.

Around Moscow

In the capital, according to official statistics, things are a little better, and there are only 3.5% of divorces per 1,000 residents.

However, there are many people living in the city who are not officially registered, which makes assessing the data very difficult.

Thus, many residents of the Central Federal District work in Moscow, and get married and divorced in other cities. And the unit that should be attributed to Moscow in statistical calculations is attributed to the Central Federal District.

Number of divorces in Moscow:

It is interesting that it is in Moscow and St. Petersburg that they often give impetus to divorce social media. Indirectly they distract people from real life, push to search for “easy solutions”.

By age of spouses

In recent years, marriage has become “older”, that is, the number of people getting married before the age of 18 is decreasing. And even in the group from 18 to 24 years old, this trend is very visible.

However, the divorce rate is not decreasing, which partly refutes the stereotype that marrying later in life makes it more stable.

Age of marriage for Russians:

Years	2011	2012	2013	2014 2)	2015
Total marriages	1316011	1213598	1225501	1225985	1161068
According to the groom's age, years
before 18	1097	952	931	835	853
18-24	380457	327000	300195	273994	247588
25-34	633360	594126	619534	632025	606002
35 or more	301045	291469	304826	319131	306625
not specified	52	51	15	0	0
By bride's age, years
before 18	11425	10569	9695	9180	8462
18-24	574707	496335	465626	436993	400952
25-34	514339	492239	521289	534702	513566
35 or more	215505	214427	228879	245110	238088
not specified	35	28	12	0	0

Regardless of the age at which spouses get married, the following can be noted:

already in the first four years of marriage, 40% of divorces occur;
by age ten this figure rises to 63%;
approximately 37% of divorces occur when spouses have been married for more than 10 years.

The following trend is also observed: among people who got married before the age of 30, their marriages, on average, last twice as long as those who found a couple after 30 years of age.

Experts believe that this is due to personality flexibility, which decreases with age. However, most divorces occur for spouses under the age of 35.

This means that when entering into a union after 30, a person often decides to divorce in the very first years of marriage.

Depending on the presence of children

Information on this issue is rarely collected, and the last reliable results were summed up in 2011. However, numerous studies conducted in individual regions indicate that now things in the country are about the same.

Photo: divorce in families with children

Divorces in families with common children:

Year	Total number of divorces, thousand	Proportion of divorces with common children, %	Average number of children per divorce *
2009	669,4	50,5	1,20
2010	639,3	50,5	1,21
2011	669,4	47,8	1,23

*This refers to the ratio of the number of children affected by divorce to the number of divorces with common children.

The table shows that approximately half of families break up even if they have children together. And from the data reflected in the last column, it is clear that divorce in families with two or more children is also not uncommon.

However, the birth rate changes from year to year, and along with the decline in this indicator, the number of divorces with common children also falls. It is important to understand that the reason for this is not a positive change in the situation, but the usual decline in the birth rate.

In our country, the court can oblige spouses to wait for a divorce from 1 to 3 months, and on average 64% of couples who apply for divorce receive such an order.

7% of them are found during this period mutual language and take the application. If there are children, divorce requires legal proceedings.

During research, experts ask citizens not only about the reasons for divorce, but also about the obstacles to it.

Thus, 35% of people who are dissatisfied with their family life consider divorce impossible because of children.

Shared property can hold on to another 30%, and 22% of respondents hold on to their unloved partner because of his material security.

In 80% of cases, women are considered to be the initiators of divorce. This is due to the fact that for the main reasons, most men are at risk, and social stereotypes hold them responsible for the material well-being of the family.

And yet, 64% of respondents believe that both spouses are to blame for the destruction of a marriage. That is ex-husbands often understand and accept their wives' decisions.

What is the Russian government doing on this issue?

Divorce is extremely rarely considered by the government as a topic for serious social decisions. There are practically no direct solutions to help people stay in marriage and develop it to a satisfactory state.

However, some government actions help married couples save the relationship:

Maternity support and assistance in obtaining housing under the “Young Family” and “Maternity Capital” programs.
Creation and support of groups psychological assistance, including on this issue.
Holding trials and setting deadlines for conciliation, giving people time to resolve problems.

The regions have their own programs to improve the situation. For example, in Tatarstan more attention is paid to this, and in the Republic the divorce rate is significantly lower than in other constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Positive changes in the situation

In Russia, the institution of “civil marriage” is developing, which is a form of cohabitation. And although there is no official data on this topic, all large-scale surveys show that a preliminary “trial marriage” lasting 1-2 years has a positive effect on the family.

Couples who get to know each other better in conditions of an almost complete imitation of marriage get divorced significantly less often.

After the first divorce, half of men and women find a partner within the next 3-4 years. And during their later life, about 75% of people marry again.

It is interesting that in recent years, representatives of both sexes have equal chances of starting a family again. And quite a lot of children are born in remarriages.

That is, if a woman has a child from her first marriage, she can most likely find a spouse and give birth to a child from him. In general, this has a positive effect on both the birth rate and the psycho-emotional health of citizens.

Despite the figures presented, our country's performance is not unusual.

If we compare data for all economically developed countries, we can understand that Russia does not stand out from the overall picture.

However, most divorces happen because citizens often do not take the institution of marriage seriously, do not prepare for family life, and do not even have a clear idea of why a family is needed.

And only the state, religious and social organizations can influence the development of the family institution.

Video: Russia in numbers. Marriages and divorces

The number of registered marriages per thousand residents of Russia in 2018 was 6.2, as follows from Rosstat data. This is the lowest level since the beginning of the century. The indicator can begin to grow only after 2025, says the expert

The number of registered marriages in Russia at the end of 2018 decreased by 12.7% compared to 2017 and amounted to 917 thousand, according to Rosstat data. A year earlier, 1.05 million marriages were registered. RANEPA experts drew attention to this in their latest monitoring of the socio-economic situation and well-being of the population.

The marriage rate (the number of registered marriages per 1 thousand people) was 6.2 last year, while in 2017 the figure was 7.2. This coefficient (as well as the absolute number of marriages) dropped to its lowest value since 2000, when the figure was the same 6.2.

The overall marriage rate very much depends on the age structure of the population, Ramilya Khasanova, a senior researcher at the Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasting of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, explained to RBC. “Marriages are now taking place among the small generations born in the 1990s, so it is not surprising that the overall marriage rate is declining,” the expert said. According to her, the number of registered marriages will continue to decline in the coming years.

Meanwhile, the number of births, after falling in the 1990s, gradually began to increase from the beginning of the 2000s, noted Anatoly Vishnevsky, director of the Institute of Demography at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. When the generations born in the 2000s begin to enter the age of marriage, then the marriage rate will begin to rise, he told RBC. According to him, an increase in the number of registered marriages should be expected from the mid-2020s.

The number of registered divorces at the end of 2018 decreased by 4.5% and amounted to 584 thousand. The overall divorce rate decreased compared to 2017 to four divorces per 1000 population. This is the minimum value of the indicator since 1990. The divorce-to-marriage ratio (divorces per 1,000 marriages) rose to 637, the highest since 2004, due to a sharper decline in the number of marriages.

Risks to the quality of demographic statistics

Since October 2018, the Unified State Register of Civil Status Records (USR Civil Registry Office) began operating in Russia. From this moment on, Rosstat receives information on the registration of marriages and divorces from the Unified State Register of Civil Registry Offices. The transition to an automated system certainly meets the modern challenges of digitalization, but at the start stage it causes certain difficulties, the authors of the monitoring indicated.

The deadline for publishing operational data has been increased, and monthly operational information on the vital movement of the population (data on the number of births and deaths, natural increase, etc.) is published with a note about the possibility of their subsequent adjustment. “Not only the timing of the provision of operational data is at risk, but also the quality of the information provided,” analysts warned.

Fewer marriages and fewer births

The natural population decline in Russia at the end of 2018 amounted to 218.4 thousand people, which exceeds the same figure for 2017 by 62.5% (by 84 thousand people), RANEPA experts indicated. The migration influx of the population of Russia in 2018 was the lowest in the entire post-Soviet history of the country, the authors of the monitoring emphasized. “The decline in migration growth occurred quickly; in every quarter except the first, the figure was almost half as much as a year earlier,” they pointed out. At the end of 2018, the migration increase amounted to 124.9 thousand people.

Thus, the migration influx could not compensate for the natural decline, and the total population of Russia decreased for the first time in ten years. According to preliminary data from Rosstat, as of January 1, 2019, 146.7 million people lived in Russia, and the average for 2018 was 146.8 million people.

The reason for natural population decline is both a significant reduction in the birth rate and a slight decrease in mortality rates. The number of births in 2018 amounted to 1.599 million people, which is 5.4% less than in 2017. A decrease in the fertility rate was demonstrated by almost all regions of Russia, the maximum drop in the rate was observed in the Magadan region (12% reduction), the Komi Republic (-11%), the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (-10.5%), Stavropol Territory (-9.5% ), Kostroma, Smolensk regions and Sevastopol (-9%).

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova on the need for additional measures to support the birth rate in Russia. “It is obvious that, most likely, we will need to take additional measures in order to motivate families to have children. This is connected with many aspects, including the topic that you mentioned: the need to ensure the preservation of the nation,” said the Deputy Prime Minister. According to her, the government is discussing the idea of providing maternity capital at the birth of the first child (now a family can receive maternity capital in the amount of 453,026 rubles at the birth of the second child).