UK Divorce and Financial Remedy Index
The average divorce in England and Wales now takes 69 weeks from application to final order
A sourced, quarterly read on divorce volumes, court timings and financial remedy cases across England and Wales, compiled from the Ministry of Justice Family Court Statistics Quarterly. Latest edition: Family Court Statistics Quarterly, October to December 2025, published 26 March 2026.
Key findings
- There were 109,184 divorce applications and 105,704 final orders of divorce in England and Wales in 2025.
- Divorces reaching a final order in 2025 took a mean of 69 weeks from application, around 16 months, against a statutory minimum of 26 weeks. The median was 42 weeks.
- Reaching the conditional order alone took a mean of 41 weeks in 2025 (median 30 weeks).
- Financial remedy applications rose 8 percent in 2025 to 49,067, with 46,651 disposals in the year.
- 74 percent of financial remedy applications in 2025 were uncontested consent order applications; the remainder began as contested proceedings.
- Two decades ago the courts moved much faster: in 2003 the mean time from petition to decree absolute was 43 weeks, and there were over 170,000 divorce applications a year.
Source: Ministry of Justice, Family Court Statistics Quarterly, October to December 2025, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures may be cited with attribution to Divorce Finance Specialists.
Divorce applications and orders by year
The table shows annual divorce applications (petitions under the pre-2022 law), conditional orders (decrees nisi) and final orders (decrees absolute) for dissolution of marriage in England and Wales. The long decline in applications from the early 2000s reflects both fewer marriages and later marriage. The 2022 spike follows the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 taking effect that April: couples who had waited for no fault divorce applied in the first months of the new regime, and the final order figures peak a year later as those cases concluded.
| Year | Applications | Conditional orders | Final orders |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 114,504 | 99,082 | 102,154 |
| 2016 | 114,039 | 114,123 | 108,255 |
| 2017 | 109,266 | 103,120 | 102,801 |
| 2018 | 118,346 | 91,991 | 91,983 |
| 2019 | 116,628 | 115,240 | 107,308 |
| 2020 | 113,070 | 106,649 | 103,975 |
| 2021 | 108,532 | 114,077 | 113,841 |
| 2022 | 122,484 | 80,234 | 80,417 |
| 2023 | 113,073 | 104,942 | 103,475 |
| 2024 | 110,428 | 107,024 | 105,438 |
| 2025 | 109,184 | 117,687 | 105,704 |
Dissolution of marriage only; judicial separation and nullity proceedings are excluded. The full series back to 2003 is in the downloadable CSV.
How long divorce really takes
The no fault regime sets a legal minimum of 26 weeks: a 20 week reflection period between application and conditional order, then a 6 week wait before the final order can be requested. Real cases run far longer. Divorces reaching a final order in 2025 took a mean of 69 weeks from application, and even the median case, unaffected by the long tail, took 42 weeks. In the quarter to December 2025 the median stood at 38 weeks to final order and 28 weeks to conditional order.
The gap between the median and the mean is itself informative: a minority of cases take dramatically longer than the rest, dragging the average up. A common driver is money. The divorce itself and the financial proceedings are separate, and many applicants hold off requesting the final order until a financial order is approved, because remarriage can bar some financial claims and because pension and inheritance positions change on final order.
| Year | Mean weeks to conditional order | Median weeks to conditional order | Mean weeks to final order | Median weeks to final order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 25 | 16 | 49 | 29 |
| 2016 | 25 | 18 | 50 | 30 |
| 2017 | 25 | 17 | 50 | 31 |
| 2018 | 30 | 22 | 55 | 35 |
| 2019 | 32 | 24 | 57 | 40 |
| 2020 | 28 | 19 | 51 | 34 |
| 2021 | 25 | 13 | 51 | 29 |
| 2022 | 35 | 26 | 61 | 35 |
| 2023 | 40 | 29 | 64 | 39 |
| 2024 | 40 | 29 | 66 | 42 |
| 2025 | 41 | 30 | 69 | 42 |
Timings measure completed cases in each year across all case types and both legal regimes, so years spanning the April 2022 reform mix old law and new law cases.
Financial remedy: the money side of divorce
Financial remedy proceedings decide how money, property and pensions are divided when a marriage or civil partnership ends. Applications reached 49,067 in 2025, up 8 percent on 2024 and the highest figure since 2010. Around three quarters were uncontested consent order applications, where the couple asks the court to approve terms already agreed; the rest began as contested cases, though the disposal figures show a meaningful share of those concluded by consent after starting contested.
| Year | Applications | Uncontested | Contested | Uncontested share | Disposals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 42,383 | 28,507 | 13,876 | 67.3% | 43,814 |
| 2016 | 46,624 | 32,222 | 14,402 | 69.1% | 45,455 |
| 2017 | 46,275 | 31,631 | 14,644 | 68.4% | 47,687 |
| 2018 | 43,151 | 29,053 | 14,098 | 67.3% | 47,123 |
| 2019 | 42,058 | 28,149 | 13,909 | 66.9% | 48,534 |
| 2020 | 39,946 | 27,868 | 12,078 | 69.8% | 46,572 |
| 2021 | 49,048 | 36,603 | 12,445 | 74.6% | 48,558 |
| 2022 | 40,081 | 28,396 | 11,685 | 70.8% | 36,782 |
| 2023 | 44,286 | 31,651 | 12,635 | 71.5% | 41,041 |
| 2024 | 45,563 | 33,722 | 11,841 | 74.0% | 47,041 |
| 2025 | 49,067 | 36,512 | 12,555 | 74.4% | 46,651 |
Disposals split contested, initially contested (started contested, concluded by consent) and uncontested; the full breakdown back to 2006 is in the downloadable CSV. The Ministry of Justice no longer publishes financial remedy disposals by order type (such as pension sharing orders) because the data quality was judged unsuitable for publication.
Methodology and sources
Source data. All figures are compiled from the underlying CSV data files of the Ministry of Justice Family Court Statistics Quarterly (FCSQ), the official statistics series for the family courts of England and Wales. This edition uses the October to December 2025 release, published 26 March 2026. The index is rebuilt each quarter when a new edition is released.
Definitions. Divorce figures cover dissolution of marriage proceedings only; judicial separation and nullity are excluded. Applications correspond to petitions under the pre-April 2022 law. Conditional orders include decrees nisi, and final orders include decrees absolute, from the earlier regime. Timeliness figures are means and medians for cases completing each stage in the period, across paper and digital cases and both legal regimes. Financial remedy counts follow the FCSQ contested status classification. Where the source data is blank, the value is left blank in this index; nothing is estimated or interpolated.
- Family Court Statistics Quarterly: October to December 2025 (Ministry of Justice)
- FCSQ Q4 2025 underlying data (CSV) (Ministry of Justice)
Download the full annual series (CSV)
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Free to cite and republish with attribution to Divorce Finance Specialists. This page is a data summary and does not constitute legal or financial advice on any individual situation.
Sorting out the finances of a divorce?
Most financial remedy cases are settled by agreement, and the tax and pension consequences of how assets are divided can be substantial. Our calculators and guides cover the money side of separation, from the family home to pension sharing and maintenance.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a divorce take in England and Wales?
On the latest Ministry of Justice figures, divorces reaching a final order in 2025 took a mean of 69 weeks (about 16 months) from application to final order, with a median of 42 weeks. The conditional order stage alone took a mean of 41 weeks. The legal minimum under the no fault regime is 26 weeks (a 20 week reflection period plus a 6 week wait before the final order), so the typical case runs well beyond the statutory floor, often because financial arrangements are resolved before the final order is applied for.
What is a financial remedy application?
A financial remedy application asks the family court to make orders about money and property when a marriage or civil partnership ends: the family home, pensions, maintenance, lump sums and asset transfers. Most are uncontested consent order applications, where both parties ask the court to approve terms they have already agreed. A minority are contested, where the court is asked to decide the division itself.
How many divorces are there each year in England and Wales?
In 2025 there were 109,184 divorce applications and 105,704 final orders of divorce in England and Wales, according to the Ministry of Justice Family Court Statistics Quarterly. Annual applications have fallen from over 170,000 in 2003, though the introduction of no fault divorce in April 2022 produced a temporary spike as couples who had waited for the reform applied.
What share of financial remedy cases are contested?
In 2025, 74 percent of the 49,067 financial remedy applications were uncontested, meaning the couple asked the court to approve an agreed consent order. The remainder started as contested applications, although some of those settle before a final contested hearing: the disposal figures separately record cases that were initially contested but concluded by consent.
Where does this data come from?
All figures come from the Ministry of Justice Family Court Statistics Quarterly, the official statistics series for the family courts of England and Wales, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This index is rebuilt from the underlying CSV data files each quarter when a new edition is released.
Does getting a financial order slow down the divorce itself?
The divorce and the financial proceedings are legally separate, but they interact in practice. Many applicants delay applying for the final order of divorce until a financial order is approved, because remarriage before making a financial claim can bar some applications and because certain pension and inheritance positions change on final order. This is one reason the average time from application to final order runs far beyond the 26 week statutory minimum.