Divorces up 63% in past decade

Expert says increase partly due to changes in property law; divorce 'should not be demonized'

Increasing numbers of married couples have sought divorce in China in recent years, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The ministry published China's divorce rates from the past eight years in its latest bulletin on the development of social services in 2015. The index has been steadily climbing each year. In 2008, 1.71 couples per 1,000 population got a divorce. But in 2015, 2.79 couples per 1,000 population divorced, a 63 percent surge in less than a decade.