Looking for love in all the wrong places? You might be if you live in one of the UK’s heartbreak hotspots, highlighted in a new study of the towns where marriages go south at rates that’ll shock you
Heading down the aisle, you might think you’ve thought of everything that could wreck your romance. But newlyweds mightn’t realise that where they live can also doom their marriage.
A new study reveals the startlingly different rates at which marriages hit the rocks in towns across the UK. While divorce is sadly now a familiar part of British life, where we live seems to be a key factor, along with all the pressures of modern living.
Tarotoo researched UK areas by divorce rate using the latest data from the Office for National Statistics and Scotland’s Census. Looking at 49 UK areas to find where marriages are least likely to last, the forecasting website has terrible news for locals including Alan Partridge.
Divorce rates in the UK have shifted dramatically in the past 20 years. They soared from the late 1990s into the early 2000s then stabilised over the last decade.
The change, sadly, is because fewer of us are getting hitched in the first place. Divorce rates are still high among those of us who dare to tie the knot.
Recent legal reforms, including the introduction of no-fault divorce in England and Wales in 2022, have further reshaped the landscape, altering when and how we divorce.
But another key threat to your wedded bliss is… Norwich! The UK’s saddest town has a divorce rate of 12.76 per 1,000 married people, way ahead of all the other towns for failed marriages.
Lincoln comes second with a divorce rate of 11.93, followed by Portsmouth with 11.61. Both cities sit well above the 11 mark, reinforcing their position among the areas with the country’s highest levels of marital breakdown.
Plymouth with 11.40 and Southampton with 11.20 round out the leader board.
Peterborough ranks sixth with 10.99, followed by Kingston upon Hull with 10.88. Southend-on-Sea, Exeter, and Doncaster complete the top 10, each with a divorce rate above 10.5.
If you want your love to last, you should also avoid Worcester, Wakefield, and Colchester, as well as larger urban centres including Manchester, Bristol, and Leeds.
Your marriage might be safest at a historic and affluent city. Bath comes last with a rate of 6.7, followed by Edinburgh, St Albans, Glasgow and Leicester, all recording divorce rates below eight.
The full list of the UK’s areas with the highest divorce rates:
- Norwich – 12.76
- Lincoln – 11.93
- Portsmouth – 11.61
- Plymouth – 11.4
- Southampton – 11.2
- Peterborough – 10.99
- Kingston upon Hull – 10.88
- Southend-on-Sea – 10.84
- Exeter – 10.73
- Doncaster – 10.56
- Worcester – 10.49
- Wakefield – 10.32
- Colchester – 10.25
- Brighton and Hove – 10.23
- Stoke-on-Trent – 10.09
- Nottingham – 10.02
- Lancaster – 9.98
- Milton Keynes – 9.86
- Durham – 9.74
- Newport – 9.7
- Derby – 9.61
- Canterbury – 9.53
- Hereford – 9.43
- Coventry – 9.41
- Bristol – 9.4
- Manchester – 9.32
- Cardiff – 9.3
- Preston – 9.26
- York – 9.24
- Leeds – 9.2
- Chelmsford – 9.06
- Newcastle upon Tyne – 9.02
- Cambridge – 8.9
- Wolverhampton – 8.76
- Sunderland – 8.75
- Oxford – 8.74
- Sheffield – 8.71
- Perth – 8.7
- Bradford – 8.6
- Dundee – 8.6
- Liverpool – 8.58
- London – 8.56
- Birmingham – 8.48
- Aberdeen – 8.0
- Leicester – 7.83
- Glasgow – 7.4
- St Albans – 7.39
- Edinburgh – 7.0
- Bath – 6.7
Sources: Office for National Statistics, Scotland’s Census
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