Divorce rate rises by 7%: Ministry

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.

民政部公布的一份报告显示，去年我国共有190多万对夫妇离婚，比前一年增加了12万8千对（7%）。

报告显示，去年全国各地的民政局共受理离婚案件129万起，其中诉讼离婚62万2千起。

辽宁、江苏、山东、河南和四川五省去年各上报的离婚案件数超过10万起。

去年，全国的结婚数量也有所上升，登记结婚数达到945万例，比前一年增长120万例。

尽管离婚在传统意义上不被提倡，但在过去20年中，我国的离婚率大幅上升。据有关分析，这主要是因为女性在经济上越来越独立，以及离婚的手续已被简化。

从1985年至1995年，我国的离婚率翻了一番，到2006年，上升了三倍。

据民政部统计，我国每一千人中的离婚数从前一年的137升至去年的146。