China settles over 1.4m divorce petitions in 2017

BEIJING - More than 1.4 million divorce petitions were settled by courts across China in 2017, according to a report made public by the Supreme People's Court on Thursday.

According to the report, 65.8 percent of the cases were resolved with the couples staying married.

Figures from 2016 and 2017 showed that marital issues were most likely to occur between the second and seventh years of marriage.

In 91.1 percent of divorce cases, only one of the couple wanted to divorce. Over 77.5 percent of the cases were filed due to the couple being on bad terms.

The report also showed that in 14.9 percent of the cases one spouse petitioned for divorce due to domestic violence, and in over 91 percent of those cases the male instigated violence towards the female partner.