Divorce rate rises by 7%

More than 1.9 million couples got divorced in China in 2006, an increase of 128,000 couples or 7 percent on the previous year, a report by the Ministry of Civil Affairs has said.

Civil affairs bureaux across the country handled 1.29 million of the cases, with 622,000 couples untying the knot through the courts, the report said.

Five provinces - Liaoning, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Sichuan - reported more than 100,000 divorce cases each in 2006.

The number of couples getting married also increased last year, with 9.45 million marriages registered nationwide, an increase of 1.2 million year on year, the report said.

Although divorce is traditionally discouraged in China, over the past 20 years the rate has soared. This is said to be due to women becoming more financially independent and divorce procedures being simplified.

Between 1985 and 1995, the rate more than doubled; by 2006 it had tripled.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs calculates the number of divorces in terms of cases per 1,000 people. Last year, that figure rose to 1.46 from 1.37 year on year, the Ministry said.

民政部公布的一份報告顯示，去年我國共有190多萬對夫婦離婚，比前一年增加了12萬8千對（7%）。

報告顯示，去年全國各地的民政局共受理離婚案件129萬起，訴訟離婚案件共62萬2千起。

遼寧、江蘇、山東、河南和四川五省去年各上報的離婚案件數超過10萬起。

去年，全國的結婚數量也有所上升，登記結婚數達到945萬例，比去年同期增長120萬例。

盡管離婚在傳統意義上不被提倡，但在過去20年中，我國的離婚率大幅上升。據有關分析，這主要是因為女性在經濟上越來越獨立，以及離婚的手續已被簡化。

從1985年至1995年，我國的離婚率翻了一番，到2006年，上升了兩倍。

據民政部統計，我國每一千人中的離婚數從前一年的1.37升至去年的1.46。