Divorces expensive, their number falls among Czechs

Prague, Oct 3 (CTK) - The number of divorces in the Czech Republic is falling and finances may be one of the reasons because for many people a divorce is too expensive, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Wednesday.

About 13,000 married couples got divorced in the country in the first six months of the year, compared to approximately 14,500 in the same period last year and to over 16,000 from January to June 2006, MfD writes, citing Czech Statistical Office (CSU) data.

"It seems that the number of marriages is not growing also because weddings are expensive. A divorce is expensive, too, however," Michaela Vojtkova, from the Sociology Institute of the Czech Sciences Academy, told the paper.

Psychologist and marriage therapist Jitka Douchova said married couples prefer a formal relationship to a divorce due to which they would lose property.

"They prefer to have a parallel relationship," she said.

CSU statistician Eva Kacerova noted that the decrease in the number of divorces has not been caused by a lower number of weddings.

"The number of those who might get divorced is potentially falling since a lower number of people get married, however, people get divorced only after a time, not in the same year when they got married," Kacerova told MfD.

From January to June, 17,800 couples entered into a marriage, which is nearly the same number as in the same period of 2011, the paper writes, citing CSU data.

Statisticians do not have an explanation for the trend towards a lower divorce rate.

"I don't know why it is so. No amendment to the family law has recently been passed, the last big change dates from 1998," Kacerova said.

Douchova said she believes people now consider family their priority more often than before.

"Especially where children were born, relationships are more stable," she said.

But this does not mean that infidelities and marital crises would be less frequent, Douchova said. People realise that a complete the family is important for them and men do not want to lose their children, she added.

Douchova told MfD that she believes Czech men take their role of a father more seriously.

"Those men who leave with a lover often return to their family in the end," she said.

Marriages last longer than 20 years ago, CSU data show. While in 1990 a marriage lasted about ten years on the average, now it is around 13 years. If a marriage gets divorced, this most often occurs three to five years after its conclusion.