Asia-Pacific News
56,103 Taiwan couples sought divorce in 2008
May 28, 2009, 14:48 GMT
Taipei - A total of 56,103 Taiwan couples filed for divorce in 2008, averaging 153 divorces per day or 6 divorces per hour, a official report said Thursday.
According to the Interior Ministry report, the number of divorces declined by 2,307 couples in 2008 from 2007. The 2008 divorce rate was 11.1 divorcees per every 1,000 married persons, down 0.5 person from 2007 and the lowest divorce rate in eight years.
Among the couples seeking divorce last year, 29.5 per cent had been married for less than five years and 27.4 per cent had been married 5-9 years, the report said.
Taiwan's divorce rate - one of the highest in Asia - peaked in 2003, when 64,995 couples divorced, averaging 178 divorces every day or 7.4 divorces ever hour.
Analysts blamed Taiwan's rising divorce rate to the breakdown of the nucleus family, economic independence of women and more liberal attitude toward sex and marriage caused by growing influence from the West.

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