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Taipei, June 4 (CNA) Taiwan saw a total of 53,448 divorces in 2015, up 0.6 percent from the previous year, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior Saturday.

On average, 146.43 married couples split up every day last year, 0.83 more than in the previous year, the statistics show. The 2015 figure represented a 17.1 percent decrease from 2006, when the divorce rate peaked over the past 10 years, the ministry said.

Among those who got divorced in 2015, 33 percent were couples who had been married for less than five years. Coming in second were couples who had tied the knot for five to nine years, representing 20.8 percent of the total number of divorces, the ministry said.

It was also found that the divorce rates for couples married for 10 years and above declined in conjunction with the number of years of their marriage, the ministry said.

In general, Taiwan's divorce rate has generally been on a steady decline over the past decade, the ministry said.

The average annual divorce number for the 2005-2006 period was 63,563, and the number dropped to 57,114 for the 2007-2012 period, and 53,397 for the 2013-2015 period, the ministry added.

(By Claudia Liu and Elaine Hou)
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