by Letitia Rowlands, Felicity Williams From: Herald Sun December 04, 2010 12:00AM
THE global financial crisis is being blamed for a sharp increase in divorces.
And there are fears the rate could keep rising as families are hit with interest rate and cost of living rises.
The number of divorces increased by 4.7 per cent last year, the first rise since 2001, the Bureau of Statistics found.
Relationships Australia chief Anne Hollonds said it was the "beginning of a wave of divorces".
"Lots of couples we see took out mortgages while interest rates were low and they are now struggling with those repayments," she said.
"People tend to hang on (to their marriages) for as long as they can. They try to get some help. So if they do end up separating it can be a couple of years down the track, and I think that's what we will see continue to happen."
Ms Hollonds said money was the chief cause of tension.
"It's followed by work and kids, but money is always No. 1," she said.
Last year, there were 49,448 divorces granted - 2239 more than the previous year.
The median age of men at divorce is 44.4 years. For women it's 41.5.
Psychologist Meredith Fuller said men and women often had different reasons for mid-life divorces.
Men often sought a new direction after their career reached its zenith.
"They're suddenly frightened about losing their sense of purpose - and sometimes what they do to stave off looking inwardly is to look outwardly and find someone else," she said.
Women often decided to end their marriage when their children had grown up a little.
"Usually, when women have come to the point of filing for a divorce they've been thinking very hard about it for years," she said.
"They often turn around and recognise, 'I've been in an unconnected relationship for a very long time. I'm absolutely worn out by all this'."
About half of marriage break-ups are in families with children under 18 years of age.
The median length of a marriage is 12.3 years.
Social commentator Bernard Salt said difficult economic times always affected the divorce rate.
"When the GFC hit, one partner might have lost their job, interest rates were high and this all adds more stress to a relationship," he said.
In addition to the divorce figures, statistics released by the ABS yesterday show the number of couples getting married reached a record high with 120,118 couples saying "I do" in 2009.
The median age of people getting married also dropped slightly to 31.5 for men and 29.2 for women.
Mr Salt said this could be due to an increasing awareness of declining fertility of women in their mid to late 30s.
"The age at marriage had been increasing for 30 years or so," he said.
"The fact that is starting to move in the other direction could mean people are considering having children earlier after hearing all the stories about the difficulties faced by older couples."