This was higher than at any time since 1977. Of marriages which ended in divorce, first marriages tend to have lasted longer than subsequent marriages. For women and men who divorced from their first marriage in 1993, the median duration of their marriage was around 12 years. In comparison divorces of those who had been married more than once occurred a median of around 8 years after their marriage. In the 1980s remarriages accounted for around one-third of all marriages.
Men are more likely to remarry than women although the gap has narrowed.
In 1966 widowed or divorced men were three times as likely as widowed or divorced women to remarry. In 1993 they were twice as likely. This reflects the ageing of the population, the longer life expectancy of women than men and the tendency for men to marry someone younger than themselves. Women 80 years or more outnumbered men 80 years or more by about 2 to 1. Women tend to wait longer than men to remarry.