marriage

The Maldives has the world's highest divorce rate. Russia, Belarus, and Latvia follow. The United States, often cited as unusually divorce-prone, has been declining since its 1980s peak and now sits below several European nations. Divorce rates track female economic independence, secularisation, and legal access more reliably than they track marital unhappiness.

The Maldives has the world's highest marriage rate — 20 per 1,000 people — driven by easy divorce and remarriage. In contrast, Japan's marriage rate has hit record lows and South Korea is in a full-scale marriage crisis. Western Europe is seeing marriage replaced by cohabitation. Here's how marriage patterns define societies.