Marriage and divorce statistics tell a strange story once you start comparing countries side by side. Some nations report divorce numbers so small they barely register, while others post rates that make separation look almost routine. The gap between the two extremes says less about who loves better and more about law, culture, and how each country counts its numbers in the first place.
What follows is a look at four countries sitting at the very bottom of the global divorce rankings, followed by eleven that consistently land near the top. The contrast between the two groups is bigger than most people expect.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has the lowest reported crude divorce rate in the world at approximately 0.15 divorces per 1,000 population in 2025, equivalent to a few hundred legal divorces per year across a country of 22 million people.[1] That number sounds almost implausibly small until you look at how the country’s legal system handles marital dissolution. The country’s divorce law operates under three distinct personal-law regimes: the Civil Procedure Code for most citizens, the Kandyan Marriage and Divorce Act for ethnic Sinhalese under Kandyan custom, and the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act for the Muslim minority.[1]
The country’s principal legal grounds for divorce remain restrictive, with adultery, malicious desertion of two years, and incurable impotence at the time of marriage as the main grounds under general law, and most divorces require litigation through the district court system, which is slow and expensive.[1] Add in strong social expectations around staying married, and it becomes clear the low number reflects difficulty in leaving a marriage as much as happiness within one.
Vietnam
Vietnam sits just behind Sri Lanka on nearly every global ranking, and the reasons are more cultural than legal. Vietnam followed Sri Lanka with 0.2 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants[2] as of 2025, a figure that has remained fairly stable for years. Cultural pressure to remain married is also high across the country’s traditional communities[1], a pattern that shows up throughout Vietnamese society as well.
Loyalty within the family and relationships are heavily emphasised in Vietnamese culture which is believed to be one of the reasons that divorce rates tend to be low in Vietnam.[3] Extended family networks often step in during marital conflict long before a couple would consider legal separation. That kind of informal mediation rarely shows up in official statistics, but it likely explains a meaningful share of the gap between Vietnam’s low divorce figures and its actual marital tension.
Guatemala
Guatemala has among the lowest divorce rates out of all the countries globally, with roughly 0.3 divorces for every 1,000 population.[3] Part of this comes down to how early many marriages begin in the country. The law in Guatemala allows marriages for girls of 14 and boys of 16 to 18 years old[3], which shapes both the marriage market and, indirectly, how divorce gets recorded and pursued.
Guatemala’s low divorce figures also reflect broader regional patterns across Central America, where formal legal separation carries both financial cost and social stigma. Many couples separate informally without ever filing paperwork, which keeps the official divorce rate artificially low compared to the number of relationships that actually end. This gap between lived reality and registered statistics is one of the more persistent challenges in comparing divorce rates across developing nations.
Colombia
Colombia offers one of the more surprising entries on this list, mostly because of what sits just beneath the surface of its numbers. Despite its low divorce rate, Colombia has one of the highest infidelity rates in Latin America, with studies indicating that roughly six in ten men and women admit to cheating on their spouses at least once.[4] That contrast alone suggests the low divorce figure isn’t necessarily a sign of marital harmony.
Colombia has reported crude divorce rates below 1 per 1,000 people[5], putting it firmly among the world’s lowest. Legal, financial, and religious barriers to divorce remain common across much of Latin America, and Colombia is no exception. In places where divorce is legally difficult, socially penalized, or where fewer people marry in the first place, a low rate does not automatically mean stronger marriages, it often means the exits are harder to use.[5]
Maldives
At the opposite end of the spectrum sits the Maldives, a country that has held the world’s highest divorce rate for years running. The Maldives, with a divorce rate of 5.52 per 1,000 people, leads the world in divorces, partly due to cultural factors and women’s empowerment.[6] That figure alone is more than thirty times higher than Sri Lanka’s rate, despite the two nations sharing a region and, in some respects, cultural roots.
In United Nations comparisons, the Maldives has long recorded the world’s highest divorce rate relative to population, at times exceeding 5 divorces per 1,000 people per year.[5] Historical figures for the country have climbed even higher in past decades. The Maldives holds the all-time record for the highest divorce rate at 10.97 per 1,000 people[7], a number tied to unusually easy divorce procedures under Islamic family law combined with high remarriage rates.
North Macedonia
North Macedonia’s ranking here comes with an asterisk, and it’s worth being upfront about that. North Macedonia has one of the highest divorce rates, with a rate of around 9.6 per 1,000 people[7] according to some recent reporting. However, statisticians have flagged serious concerns about this figure.
The UN’s 2023 listed divorce rate for North Macedonia differs by roughly ten times from both previous years’ data and the country’s own data, so the figure is shown pending a possible correction by the UN.[6] Even accounting for that uncertainty, independent sources still place the country among the higher performers in the region. Several Eastern European countries, including North Macedonia in some recent years, also post rates far above the global average[5], which suggests the broader pattern holds even if the exact number needs revisiting.
Russia
Russia’s divorce story looks different depending on which measurement you use, but by any standard it ranks near the top. Russia’s divorce-to-marriage ratio sits around 73 to 74 percent, reflecting a pattern common across Slavic countries where marriage turnover runs high, meaning many marriages occur, but even more divorces happen relative to that number.[8] That ratio puts Russia well above most Western European nations.
Economic pressure, high remarriage rates, and relatively straightforward legal procedures for ending a marriage all play a role in keeping the country’s numbers elevated. Russia’s pattern isn’t new either. The trend has held fairly steady across multiple decades, making it one of the more consistent entries on any list of high-divorce nations.
Belarus
Belarus shows up repeatedly in comparisons of former Soviet states with elevated divorce activity. Belarus posts a crude divorce rate around 3.7 to 3.8 per 1,000 people, part of a broader pattern among former USSR republics that top the list, reflecting high societal divorce acceptance and economic stresses in the post-Soviet era.[8] That rate is roughly double the global average.
Belarus had 3.7 per 1,000[8] in the most recent comparable data, a figure that has held fairly steady in recent years. Analysts point to a mix of factors, including looser social stigma around divorce compared to some neighboring regions and economic instability that puts added strain on marriages. The pattern isn’t unique to Belarus, but it’s one of the clearer examples of it.
Moldova
Moldova sits in a near tie with Belarus for one of the highest divorce rates in Eastern Europe. Moldova posts a rate around 3.7 to 3.8 per 1,000 people[8] based on recent comparable data, placing it firmly among the region’s leaders. Moldova specifically recorded 3.7 per 1,000[8] in the most recent figures available.
Much of this pattern traces back to the same post-Soviet dynamics affecting neighboring countries: economic pressure, high labor migration that separates spouses for extended periods, and comparatively accessible legal divorce procedures. Moldova’s rate has remained fairly consistent rather than spiking or dropping sharply, which suggests these underlying causes are structural rather than tied to any single event.
Georgia
Georgia rounds out the trio of former Soviet republics with notably high divorce activity. Georgia’s rate also sits around 3.7 to 3.8 per 1,000 people, part of the same regional pattern reflecting high societal divorce acceptance and economic stresses tied to the post-Soviet transition.[8] The similarity across these three countries isn’t a coincidence.
Shared history, comparable legal frameworks inherited from the Soviet era, and similar economic pressures have produced remarkably consistent divorce patterns across the region. Georgia’s numbers have tracked closely with Belarus and Moldova for years rather than diverging sharply in either direction. That consistency makes the region one of the more reliable clusters when studying high divorce rates globally.
Latvia
Latvia currently holds the distinction of the highest divorce rate anywhere in the European Union, based on official Eurostat figures. In 2023, the highest crude divorce rates within the EU were reported in Latvia at 2.8 divorces per 1,000 persons[9], ahead of every other member state. That’s a notable gap compared to the EU average.
The Baltic states have consistently high divorce rates, with Latvia currently highest in the EU at 2.8.[8] Interestingly, Latvia also reports relatively low marriage rates compared to some other EU countries, which means the divorce rate reflects a smaller pool of marriages overall. That combination, fewer marriages but a higher share ending in divorce, is a pattern seen across much of the Baltic region.
Lithuania
Lithuania trails Latvia by a small margin but still ranks among the EU’s highest for divorce. Lithuania’s crude divorce rate stood at 2.5 divorces per 1,000 persons in 2023[9], according to Eurostat’s most recent published figures. That places it second within the bloc, just behind its Baltic neighbor.
Latvia and Lithuania both report crude divorce rates in the range of roughly 2.5 to 2.9 per 1,000 people[8] based on 2022 comparable data, showing the trend has held steady rather than shifting dramatically year to year. The two countries share enough historical and cultural overlap that similar divorce patterns aren’t particularly surprising. Both nations also liberalized divorce law decades ago, which likely contributes to the sustained elevated rate.
Finland
Finland is a slightly less expected entry on a list dominated by Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc, but the numbers put it firmly in the top tier. Finland reported a crude divorce rate of 2.1 divorces per 1,000 persons in 2023[9], ranking third highest within the entire EU that year. That’s a notably high figure for a Nordic country generally associated with strong social stability.
Finland’s rate ties into broader Nordic patterns around gender equality, financial independence for both spouses, and comparatively simple legal procedures for ending a marriage. Unlike some countries where a high divorce rate signals economic desperation, Finland’s numbers are widely interpreted as a byproduct of low social stigma and strong individual autonomy within marriage. That’s a meaningfully different story than the one told by post-Soviet nations on this same list.
Denmark
Denmark’s inclusion here comes with an interesting wrinkle tied directly to the pandemic years. Denmark, considered one of the top 10 countries to live in, reversed the trend and saw its divorce rate leap from 1.8 to 2.7 during the 2020 pandemic[6], moving against the global drop seen almost everywhere else. That jump was unusual enough to stand out in nearly every major dataset covering the period.
Most countries recorded fewer divorces during lockdowns simply because courts slowed down and filing became logistically harder. Denmark went the opposite direction, likely because prolonged time together under lockdown conditions accelerated decisions that were already building beforehand. Whether the elevated rate holds steady long term or settles back toward pre-pandemic levels remains one of the more interesting open questions in recent European divorce data.
Ukraine
Ukraine rounds out this list with one of the higher divorce-to-marriage ratios among Slavic nations, based on recent comparative estimates. Ukraine’s ratio sits at approximately 71 percent[8], meaning a substantial majority of marriages in the country eventually end in divorce rather than lasting a lifetime. That places it close behind Russia in regional comparisons.
Wartime disruption since 2022 has added new layers of complexity to Ukraine’s marriage and divorce statistics, including displacement, prolonged separation of spouses, and delayed court proceedings in some regions. These conditions make it harder to draw clean year over year comparisons compared to more stable countries. Still, the underlying pattern of high divorce prevalence relative to marriage rates predates the current conflict and reflects longer term social and economic trends across the region.
The contrast between these two groups makes one thing clear: a country’s divorce rate says as much about legal systems, religious frameworks, and cultural expectations as it does about how people actually feel inside their marriages. Countries with rock-bottom numbers often make leaving a marriage difficult or costly, while countries at the top tend to have accessible courts, established no-fault divorce laws, and fewer social penalties attached to separation. Neither extreme is a clean measure of happiness, just a different way of counting what happens when relationships don’t work out.
