This article explains the key features of Statistics South Africa’s latest divorce release, highlights the most important movements from 2023 to 2024, and places the published figures in their wider family-law context.

Publication date of release: 19 March 2026   |   Primary source: Statistics South Africa, Marriages and Divorces, 2024.

Key shifts from the previous period

The report provides a reliable year-on-year comparison for the overall volume of divorces and the population-group composition of the divorce pool. Several deeper profile tables, such as plaintiffs, age, duration of marriage, and children affected, are presented as 2024 distributions rather than full historical series.

Measure	2023	2024	What changed
Total divorces granted	22 230	24 202	+1 972 divorces (+8,9%)
Black African divorces	12 362 (55,6%)	13 284 (54,9%)	Higher count, slightly smaller share
White divorces	4 343 (19,5%)	5 008 (20,7%)	Higher count and larger share
Coloured divorces	3 350 (15,1%)	3 363 (13,9%)	Almost flat count, smaller share
Indian/Asian divorces	915 (4,1%)	990 (4,1%)	Moderate rise, share unchanged
Mixed-population divorces	672 (3,0%)	716 (3,0%)	Small rise, share unchanged

The rebound in divorce numbers

Statistics South Africa’s Marriages and Divorces, 2024 release, published on 19 March 2026, provides far more than a raw count of broken marriages. It offers a structured picture of how formal marital breakdown is unfolding in South Africa, who is driving the litigation, what age groups are most affected, how long marriages tend to last before ending in divorce, and how many children are caught in the process. The release is based on administrative divorce data received from the courts, but it carries an important caution: not all divorces concluded in 2024 had reached Stats SA by the time of publication, so the figures may still be revised in the next release. That caution does not diminish the value of the report, but it does mean that the current totals should be treated as the official published position rather than an immutable final count.

The headline figure is that 24 202 divorces were granted in South Africa in 2024. That is 1 972 more than in 2023, when the total stood at 22 230. Stats SA records this as an 8,9% year-on-year increase, with the crude divorce rate rising to 39 divorces per 100 000 resident population in 2024. This is one of the most important aspects of the release. The country is no longer merely recovering from the pandemic-era collapse in court finalisations; it is now well into a post-2020 rebound in divorce numbers. The sequence is clear: 16 097 divorces in 2020, 18 208 in 2021, 20 196 in 2022, 22 230 in 2023, and now 24 202 in 2024.

That rebound is especially significant when placed against the longer ten-year picture. South Africa recorded 25 260 divorces in 2015, 25 326 in 2016, 25 390 in 2017, and 25 284 in 2018 before declining to 23 710 in 2019 and then falling sharply in 2020. The 2024 total of 24 202 therefore remains below the pre-pandemic highs of the mid-2010s, but only modestly so. In effect, the latest figures suggest that the system has nearly climbed back to where it stood before the 2020 disruption. That is a more precise reading than simply saying that divorces rose. They rose sharply from 2023 to 2024, but they also form part of a longer pattern of recovery towards earlier baseline levels.

Population patterns and who is initiating divorce

One of the most important comparative features between 2023 and 2024 lies in the population-group composition of divorces. In absolute numbers, black African couples still accounted for the highest number of divorces in 2024, with 13 284 divorces, followed by white couples with 5 008, coloured couples with 3 363, Indian/Asian couples with 990, and mixed-population marriages with 716. But the more revealing point is how those numbers shifted relative to 2023. Black African divorces increased from 12 362 to 13 284, which is a year-on-year rise of 922 divorces. White divorces rose from 4 343 to 5 008, a much sharper increase of 665 divorces. Coloured divorces were almost flat, moving from 3 350 to 3 363. Indian/Asian divorces rose from 915 to 990, while mixed-population divorces moved from 672 to 716. The unspecified category also increased.

The share analysis is equally important. In 2023, black African divorces made up 55,6% of all divorces; in 2024 that share fell slightly to 54,9%. The coloured share dropped from 15,1% to 13,9%. The white share rose from 19,5% to 20,7%. The Indian/Asian share remained at 4,1%, while mixed-population divorces remained at 3,0%. This means that although black African couples still represent the majority of divorce cases in raw terms, the composition of the divorce pool shifted modestly in 2024 towards the white category and away from the coloured and black African shares.

At the same time, the crude divorce rates by population group again show why raw totals must never be confused with incidence. The white population group had the highest crude divorce rate in 2024 at 110 per 100 000 estimated resident population, followed by the coloured and Indian/Asian groups at 64 and 60 respectively, while the black African population group stood at 26 per 100 000. The black African category records the largest number of divorces, but not the highest rate. The white category records a smaller absolute number, but the highest relative frequency.

Another consistent structural feature is that wives remain far more likely than husbands to institute divorce proceedings. In 2024, wives were the plaintiffs in 13 853 divorces, or 57,2% of all cases, while husbands initiated 7 976 cases, or 33,0%. Both spouses were recorded as plaintiffs in 1 107 cases, and the plaintiff category was unspecified in 1 266. Across population groups, women were more likely than men to initiate divorce proceedings. For family-law practitioners, that remains one of the most practically important findings in the release because it confirms a familiar litigation pattern.

Provincially, Gauteng again recorded the largest number of divorces, with 7 256, followed by the Western Cape with 4 259 and KwaZulu-Natal with 3 344. Together those three provinces accounted for 61,4% of all divorces granted in 2024. Any serious discussion about court capacity, family-law reform, mediation infrastructure, judicial case management, or litigation delay must take account of that concentration.

Age at divorce and duration of marriage

The age profile of divorcees remains highly consistent. The median age at divorce in 2024 was 46 years for men and 42 years for women. Black African men had the highest median age at divorce, at 47 years, followed by white men at 46 years, while coloured and Indian/Asian men both recorded a median age of 44 years. For women, the median age was 42 years in the black African, coloured and Indian/Asian groups, and 43 years in the white group. These figures confirm that divorce in South Africa is still concentrated predominantly in middle adulthood rather than at the youngest or oldest margins.

The age-band data sharpen that picture. Among men, the largest number of divorces came from the 40 to 44 age group, followed by 45 to 49. Among women, the largest number came from the 40 to 44 age group as well, followed by 35 to 39. Those are important figures because they show where the centre of divorce litigation really lies: not among the very young, and not predominantly among the elderly, but in the late-thirties to late-forties phase of life, when family responsibilities, property structures, pension interests and children’s expenses are often at their most complex.

The duration-of-marriage data are among the most revealing in the release. The single largest category of divorces in 2024 involved marriages lasting between five and nine years. That group accounted for 6 451 divorces, or 26,7% of the total. The next largest category was marriages lasting 10 to 14 years, with 5 167 divorces, or 21,3%, followed by marriages of less than five years, with 3 650 divorces, or 15,1%. Put differently, the most heavily represented zone in the divorce courts is not the very beginning of marriage but the middle years after the marriage has taken shape and after major financial and parenting commitments have usually already been assumed.

Perhaps the most arresting summary number in that section is that 10 101 of the 24 202 divorces granted in 2024, or 41,7%, came from marriages that lasted less than ten years. That means that just over four in every ten divorces finalised in 2024 arose from marriages that did not reach the ten-year mark.

Population-group variations in marriage duration add another dimension: among black African divorcees, 28,5% of divorces came from marriages lasting five to nine years; the equivalent proportions were 25,5% for coloured divorcees, 24,3% for white divorcees, and 20,4% for Indian/Asian divorcees. Across groups, the proportion of divorces generally declined as the duration of marriage increased, with a marked decline after 14 years.

Children affected and the wider significance of the release

The most socially consequential aspect of the 2024 release concerns children. Stats SA records that 13 490 divorces, or 55,7% of all divorces granted in 2024, involved children younger than 18 years, while 10 699 divorces, or 44,2%, did not. That means that a majority of the country’s published divorces in 2024 were not merely dissolutions of adult relationships. They were also cases with direct implications for minor children.

The population-group profile of divorces involving children is equally telling. Among black African divorcees, 61,2% of divorces involved children under 18. The figure was 58,0% among coloured divorcees, 49,9% among Indian/Asian divorcees, and 42,8% among white divorcees. The white profile is notable in the opposite direction: 57,2% of white divorcees were recorded as divorcing without children under 18. These differences do not explain causation, but they do show that the child-related burden of divorce is unevenly distributed across the various groups.

In total, about 22 916 children under 18 were affected by divorces granted in 2024. Of those children, 14 100, or 61,5%, were black African; 3 355, or 14,6%, were coloured; 3 436, or 15,0%, were white; 734, or 3,2%, were Indian/Asian; 617, or 2,7%, were from mixed-population marriages; and 674, or 2,9%, were unspecified. That figure of 22 916 children may well be the single most important human consequence reflected in the report. It is a reminder that divorce statistics are never only about adults. In a substantial proportion of cases they are really statistics about family restructuring and its impact on children.

It is also worth noting what cannot be said with precision on a previous-period basis. The release allows robust year-on-year comparison for overall divorce totals and for the population-group composition of divorces because the trend table spans the period from 2015 to 2024. By contrast, the later sections on plaintiffs, age at divorce, number of times married, duration of marriage, and children affected are largely presented as 2024-only distributions. The correct analytical method is therefore a mixed one: strong comparative comment where Stats SA supplies historical series, and careful descriptive comment where it does not.

What then are the most important aspects of the 2024 divorce statistics when compared with the previous period? First, the overall number of divorces increased materially from 22 230 in 2023 to 24 202 in 2024. Secondly, that increase forms part of a continuing post-2020 rebound rather than a one-off anomaly. Thirdly, the composition of the divorce pool shifted modestly, with the white share rising from 19,5% to 20,7% and the black African share slipping from 55,6% to 54,9%. Fourthly, wives remained the dominant plaintiffs, confirming a familiar litigation pattern. Fifthly, the core divorce zone remains the five-to-fourteen-year marriage range and the late-thirties to late-forties age band. Sixthly, the majority of divorces still involve children under 18, and nearly 23 000 children were affected in 2024 alone.

The broader significance of the release is therefore this: South Africa’s formal divorce system is dealing with rising volumes again; those divorces remain concentrated in the major provinces; wives continue to initiate most proceedings; first marriages overwhelmingly dominate the divorce pool; the pressure point sits in the middle years of marriage rather than at the extremes; and a substantial number of children remain directly implicated in the process. The 19 March 2026 release is not just a statistical update. It is a current map of the structure of family breakdown in South Africa.

Source note

Source data used in this article: Statistics South Africa, Marriages and Divorces, 2024, released on 19 March 2026. The report notes that divorce statistics are based on divorce forms that had reached Stats SA in 2024 and that the published totals may be revised in a later release if additional forms are received.

Written by Bertus Preller, a Family Law and Divorce Law attorney and Mediator at Maurice Phillips Wisenberg in Cape Town and founder of iDivorce and iANC. A blog, managed by SplashLaw, for more information on Family Law read more here. For free and useful Family Law tech applications visit Maintenance Calculator and Accrual Calculator.

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