Abstract
This article provides an overview of South African divorce figures given for the past five years. The various ways in which divorce figures can be expressed are considered, with specific reference to South Africa. When studying the crude divorce rate, two things become apparent. Firstly, the South African crude divorce rate is relatively low when compared to various other countries (contrary to the popular belief that South Africa has one of the highest divorce rates in the world) and, secondly, the South African divorce rate is rising and will probably continue to rise. In conclusion, it is argued that various macro social forces are likely to increase the number of divorces in the near future.
Highlights
Divorce as a societal phenomenon is of interest to most fields in the social sciences, to social work, psychology and sociology
This paper focuses on the various ways in which divorce figures can be reported, with specific reference to South African data
Seeing that much of the research shows that changing gender roles, especially women’s growing presence in the labour force, are associated with an increase in divorce rates (Benokraitis, 1996:458), it is likely that this factor will contribute considerably to an increase in the South African divorce rate
Summary
Divorce as a societal phenomenon is of interest to most fields in the social sciences, to social work, psychology and sociology. These new figures have been included from the year 2000 (Statistics South Africa, 1999). In 1999 there were 37 098 divorces in South Africa, divided by a total South African population of 43 054 300 and multiplied by 1000 gives a rate of 0.8616.
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