A survey released in America earlier this year suggests men are more likely to consider the possibility of divorce than women.

The study was conducted by the United States-based lawyer search website Avvo. Author Dr Nika Kabiri is the site’s Law and Society analyst.

Overall twenty percent of married people said they had thought about divorce, but only seven percent claimed they had “definitely considered” the possibility, explained Dr Kabiri.

Of more than 2,300 participants, almost a quarter, 24 percent, of married male respondents claimed they had at least thought about ending their marriage with a divorce.

Only 11 percent of married females said they had experienced similar feelings.

Dr Kabiri, suggested, that many people who consider splitting up are “simply wondering what other possibilities are out there, even if they are happy where they are”.

So, with that in mind, the discrepancy between the numbers who said they were not satisfied with their marriage and those who had thought about breaking up, wasn’t surprising.

“Considering divorce is part of evaluating the health of one's marriage … doing so doesn't necessarily mean you're serious about leaving," said Dr Kabiri.

Although men were twice as likely to think about the end of their relationship, previous studies and statistics conducted by the same body have shown that wives initiate divorce more often than husbands.

These figures mirror recent data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Official divorce statistics from 2015 showed female applicants accounted for 32 percent of divorce applications while male applicants represented for only 25 percent.

Over the last 20 years, the number of couples lodging joint application has steadily increased. The largest proportion of divorce applications lodged in Australia in 2015 was joint applicants, accounting for 43 percent of the 48517 divorces.

Read the full Avvo survey here.

Published by Divorce Resource
March 2017