Written by Bella Rigley.
Produced for online by Leia Comegna.
There is good news if you’re planning on getting hitched; the Australian divorce rate is at its lowest point since the Family Law Act was established in 1976, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Fighting common beliefs that marriage is a declining tradition, your marriage currently has the best chance of survival than any other time in recent decades.
Today only two people in every 1000 experience divorce.
Australian Institute of Family Studies director Anne Hollonds said this low rate could be due to a shift in society’s expectations.
“There’s no pressure to get married these days. You know the older generation tends to be more comfortable with young people living together and you know I think that people are not being pushed into marriage but their not really choosing,” says Hollonds.
More than 63,000 marriages ended the year no fault divorce was legalised. However in 2016 that number dropped to 46,000.
Younger couples are more likely to have divorced parents and know too well the repercussions of breaking up.
“We are being much more conscious about divorce that we understand that it is not an easy solution to a better life, but can bring with it a lot of complications, especially when children are involved,” says Hollonds.
Cassie Woodward, 24, is tying the knot with her long-term boyfriend this Saturday.
For her, failure isn’t something she worries about.
“Yah the high divorce rate, everyone sorta brings it up to me every now and again when I say that im getting married but for me it just doesn’t play on my mind. I don’t see that ever happening,” says Woodward.
Woodward says marriage is the traditional ‘next step’ in a modern relationship.
“For us it was kinda just a natural progression. We were already living together and own a house together. We both settled in our lives.”
Woodward states the couple are both steady in their jobs after finishing university.
“We know we are going to spend the rest of our lives together,” says Woodward.