Number of divorces continues to climb

BEIJING - For every five marriages civil affairs authorities in China registered last year, they registered one divorce, according to a report released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Thursday.

The report says that 24.24 million people in the country tied the knot in 2009 and there were 2.47 million registered divorces, an increase of 8.8 percent on the previous year.

The report also suggests the crude divorce rate - the number of divorces per 1,000 population - was about 1.85/1,000 on the Chinese mainland in 2009, compared with 1.71/1,000 in 2008.