Divorces happen daily at any corner of the world but Switzerland’s official stats office (OFS) reports the unprecedently high level of divorces among foreign couples in 2018, according to The Local Switzerland.
In 2018 there were 16,200 divorces recorded in Switzerland, the OFS announced on Monday. The experts say that the divorce rate among married expat couples rose at a far higher rate than among Swiss nationals and Swiss-foreign couples. According to the 2018 statistics, there is an increase of 2.1 percent compared to 2017 figures.
The most alarming rate is among foreign couples in Switzerland, for whom the number of divorces rose by a staggering 23.4 percent, almost a quarter, while the average Switzerland’s divorce rate currently stands at around 40 percent. The OFS revealed the average marriage ends in breakup lasting 15 years.
OFS: two in five marriages end with divorce
Despite the two in every five marriages end with divorce, the overall Alpine nation’s population grew by 18,600 in 2018. However, the birth rate has dropped too, from 87,400 in 2017 to 85,300 in 2018, a 2.4 percent fall last year.
According to OFS figures, there was also a sharp decrease in the number of registered civil partnerships between same-sex couples, down by 13.2 percent compared to 2017. It’s worth noting that out of all newborns in Switzerland in 2018, a quarter were born to parents who were unmarried.
