Number of divorces plummets in Sweden

There were some fears that the Covid pandemic would negatively impact marriages. That would mean that more people would go separate ways. However, these fears seem to have been ungrounded. Instead, statistics show that it is rather the other way around. "An interesting trend and perhaps a little surprising", says Gunnar Andersson to Varlden Idag. He is a professor at Stockholm university.

Marriage annulled

Last year, 27,600 couples filed for a divorce at the district courts. That is shown by statistics the courts provided. In 2021, still 28,258 couples requested to have their marriage annulled. That is still less than in 2020 when the courts received about 31,600 applications, Varlden Idag writes.

Democracy expert Gunnar Andersson notices the decline in divorces as well. "Albeit in the short term, we see a downward trend." He calls it interesting because "many factors are up in the air." After the Covid pandemic, Andersson expected the number of divorces to increase. He thought that people being locked up together because of lockdowns would speed up the process of growing apart. Instead, the opposite happened.

Sit still

History professor Glenn Sandström from Umeå University says it is hard to say how the world's situation affects people's tendency to divorce or stick together. "Factors such as falling housing prices, poor economic prospects and a troubled global environment likely increase risk aversion. So more people hesitate and choose the safe over the unsafe", he writes to Varlden Idag.

Housing economist Claudia Wörmann agrees. "Uncertain economic situations can cause people to sit still in the boat", she says. Wörmann adds that global crises can also shed new light on people's personal situations. "Some might re-evaluate their own situation and think that it is actually not that bad."

Closer

Relationship expert Charlotte Sander believes that some couples may have become closer to each other during the crisis. "During a crisis, we turn to people we have nearby, in whom we hopefully feel some kind of security", she said earlier in an interview.