Irreconcilable differences in character, opinions or interests were cited as grounds for 63 percent of divorces in Slovakia last year. This follows from figures drafted by the Slovak Statistics Office released on Tuesday. Two-thirds of all petitions for divorces were filed by women. Meanwhile, the number of divorces fell by 432 to 10,514 last year. There were 39 divorces per 100 marriages. "The average duration of a marriage before divorce was 15 years. The average age of the husband was 43 and that of the wife at the time of divorce was 40 years", said head of the Statistics Office's department for population statistics Zuzana Podmanická. There has been a record number of divorces involving marriages lasting 25 or more years. "There were 1,900 such marriages that ended in divorce last year, which was the most ever", said Podmanická. This represents a rise from 500 in 1995. On the other hand, the number of marriages dissolved less than a year after the spouses had tied the knot fell to 68 in 2014. A fall was also measured in the rate of divorces of marriages with dependent children. While they accounted for three quarters of all divorces in the 1990s, it was at 60 percent last year.
