Third of marriages are second try for partners

In a third of marriages last year one or both partners had been hitched before.

Of the 20,000 weddings recorded, 7300 included at least one partner marrying for the second time, Statistics NZ figures issued yesterday showed.

The number of marriages each year has slipped steadily since 1971, when 27,199 were recorded.

The divorce rate was stable at 12.3 for every 1000 existing marriages and the median length of marriages that ended in divorce was 13 years.

The median age for men divorcing was 41.9 compared with 39.3 for women, about three years older than those who divorced a decade earlier.

"The rise partly reflects the steady rise in age at marriage during the past two decades," Government statistician Brian Pink said.

The median age for the first marriage last year was 29.3 for men, compared with 27.3 for women.

Thirty per cent of New Zealanders who married in 1976 had divorced before their silver anniversary (25 years).

Nearly half, or 46.8 per cent, of all marriages that dissolved involved children, down from 47.1 per cent the year before.

There was an average of 1.9 children for every divorce.

- NZPA