The divorce rate in predominantly Roman Catholic Italy catapaulted 74 percent between 1995 and 2005, a new study by the national statistics institute said Tuesday.
The study said separations has also increased 57 percent during the same decade.There were 82,291 separations in 2005 and 47,036 divorces, the study said.
Marital break-ups and separations were commoner in the more industrialised and richer north against the poorer south.
There were 6.2 separations and four divorces for every 1,000 marriages in the north in 2005, against 4.2 separations and 1.8 divorces in the south.
In 1995, 158 of 1,000 married couples were separated and 80 were divorced. A decade later, the figures had swelled to 272 separations and 151 divorces.
Source-AFP
LIN/M
