Among those separating between 1981 and 1984, half the men and a third of the women had remarried within six years of divorce. Marriages are more likely to break up if the couples are young or there has been a pre-marital conception.So what do all these divorcees do afterwards?A lot have another go. 1985 was the peak year, reflecting a change in the law allowing couples to petition for divorce after a year of marriage instead of three. But the level has stayed fairly steady just below that peak.So who is doing the divorcing?The women are fed up: 70 per cent of the petitions are filed by them.Is divorce more associated with certain social classes?The better off are less at risk of divorce, but this may be simply because of their age when they tie the knot and the circumstances under which they marry. The median length of marriages before divorce is 10 years.Are the figures getting worse?No.

Divorce is now most likely to occur three or four years after marriage. In contrast 10 per cent of couples who married in 1971 had split up by their sixth wedding anniversary and 10 per cent of those married in 1981 had divorced within 4.5 years. A third will probably end in the first 20 years.
Couples are also splitting earlier. Of marriages that took place in 1951, 10 per cent had ended in divorce after 25 years.

Four in 10 marriages entered into in 1987 are likely to break up. By far the harder decision for you is to reinstate him, but it is the only honourable course open to you.Deborah Roslund, Sue Cox, M and M Davie, Madeline Johnston, Diane Bonnet. How bad are the figures for divorce?

Marriage is certainly on the rocks. In 1993, there were 178,000 divorces in Britain, one for every two marriages that year.