Nigeria’s divorce rate, however, surpasses that of Canada, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Peru, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, placing it in a significant global context.
Divorce.com, a United States website which offers resources and support for navigating divorce, has included Nigeria on its list of countries with high divorce rates.
According to data published on their website in July, Nigeria ranked eleventh out of twenty-six countries with the highest divorce rate.
The results were meticulously obtained after sampling respondents from these countries and compiling statistics from 16 primary sources, ensuring a comprehensive and reliable research process.
The report also revealed a significant trend. Women in sub-Saharan Africa, especially Nigeria, are taking the initiative in divorce more often than men, a powerful reflection of changing gender dynamics.
According to the data, Maldives has the highest divorce rate at 5.52 per cent, while India has the lowest rate at 0.01 per cent.
Maldives tops the list because women in the country have become more financially independent and can sustain themselves without husbands. Also, there is little to no stigma associated with getting divorced in modern Maldives.
However, India has the lowest divorce rates because marriage is highly valued, and divorce has historically been stigmatised, which has created intense social pressure to maintain the marriage, even in the face of difficulties.
Rationale
Divorce.com claimed that Nigeria’s divorce rate reached 2.9 per cent in 2023 based on available data on marriage and divorce, which translates to 1.8 per cent divorces per 1,000 people in the same year.
Just like Maldives, Nigeria was ranked eleventh among the countries with the highest divorce rate because its women are financially independent and can sustain themselves without husbands.
They stated that the data was arrived at based on scholars’ belief that high divorce rates in Western countries stem from the reduced stigma surrounding divorce and the growing financial independence of women.
Countries with higher divorce rates than Nigeria include the Maldives, Cuba 2.9 per cent, Finland 2.4 per cent, Sweden 2.5 per cent, Denmark 2.7 per cent and Ukraine 3.1 per cent.
For instance, Canada, a country with a similar socio-economic profile to Nigeria, had a divorce rate of 2.8 per cent, while India, a country with a different cultural and religious context, had a divorce rate of 0.1 per cent.
Other countries with lower divorce rates than Nigeria include Malta 0.6 per cent, Ireland 0.7 per cent, Guatemala 0.6 per cent, Venezuela 0.7 per cent, Uruguay 0.8 per cent, Austria 1.6 per cent, and Belgium 1.8 per cent.
