What's behind the cancelling of Stephen Colbert?
Read more:
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Australia's divorce rate is lowest on record and marriages are lasting longer, according to ABS data
Divorce rates are the lowest on record and marriages are lasting longer, according to new data that reflects an increasingly selective approach to marriage and the ongoing effects of the Covid pandemic. The Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2024 marriages and divorces figures, released on Wednesday, reflect a downward trajectory of both marriage and divorce rates over the past two decades. But within the data lies a case for romance: while fewer people were getting married, marriages were both lasting longer and less likely to end in divorce. In 2004, the marriage rate – measured per 1,000 residents over the age of 16 – was 7.1. Twenty years later, in 2024, the rate was 5.5, the same as the year before. Last year, Australia's divorce rate was 2.1, down from 2.3 in 2023. The number of divorces fell 3% from 2023 to 2024. Meanwhile, marriages lasted for a median of 13.2 years – up from 12.1 in 2020 and 13 last year. At the same time, we're marrying and getting divorced later in life. In 2024, the median marriage age was 32.8 years for men and 31.2 for women. The median age for men to divorce was 47.1 years, while for women it was 44.1. And, while younger couples were divorcing less, divorces in the above 60 age category were rising. Sign up: AU Breaking News email There were 2% more marriages in 2024 compared to the year before – a figure that doubled to 4.1% for couples of the same or non-binary gender. More same-sex female couples were married and divorced than male couples, while same-sex and non-binary divorces were slightly up from 1.4% of all divorces in 2023 to 1.6% in 2024. Steep declines then a spike in marriage rates from 2020 to 2022 were a direct impact of Covid restrictions, while the pandemic saw a spike in divorce rates in 2021. Lauren Moran, the head of health and vital statistics at the ABS, said the changing divorce rate was 'a complex picture' but '2024 saw the lowest divorce rate recorded'. She said divorce rates were heavily impacted by court administrative processes and that while the number of divorces granted was between 47,000 and 50,000 a year in recent years, fewer marriages meant there were fewer divorces. 'We are seeing declining divorce rates in younger couples, but increasing divorce rates in older couples. When marriages decreased significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic, the largest decreases were in marriages of younger people,' she said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Older couples were more likely to have a longer marriage, which impacted the median length of marriage, she said. She said there was 'no clear pattern in same-gender divorce rates yet' and that the increases were 'small numbers'. Dr Jan Kabatek, a senior research fellow the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, said the declining divorce rate reflected a more selective approach to marriage. 'Fewer people are getting married and the people who are getting married are usually the ones who are more committed, either through religion or because they are older and more experienced,' he said. He said the pandemic continued to contribute to a lower divorce rate. 'The people who might have got divorced in 2023/2024 already got divorced during Covid,' he said. 'If a lot of people call it quits in 2021, the couples who survived later also have longer marriage durations. Fundamentally, the pool of people who remain married has changed.' He also commented on the most popular day to marry, according to the ABS: 1,773 marriages took place on 24/02/2024. His own research on marriages on 'specifically pleasing dates' found those unions were 25% more likely to end in divorce. The statistics align with an Australian Institute of Family Studies report that in February found the divorce rate had in 2023 fallen to its lowest level since the implementation of the 1975 Family Law Act.
Daily Mail
13 hours ago
- Daily Mail
They want you to believe they're clean and green - but this Aussie council has a dirty little secret
A council that dubs itself as ' Sydney 's green heart' has been ordered to clean up its act after pollution spilled into the main waterway that runs through a national park. Ku-ring-gai Council has been issued its second clean-up order by the NSW Environment Protection Authority within a year. Landfill leachate beneath North Turramurra Golf Course leaked into a drain line that flows directly into Cowan Creek on Sydney's upper north shore. Cowan Creek is the main waterway that flows through Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and is a major tributary of the Hawkesbury River. Photos taken by the EPA during a recent inspection showed orange-brownish discharge and sediment leaking from a management system that disposes of water within a former landfill on the golf site. The pollution was the result of an 'unexpected pump malfunction' at the old landfill site. The council self-reported the problem to the environmental watchdog. 'Council has since installed a replacement pump which stopped the leak,' an EPA spokesman told Daily Mail Australia. 'EPA officers collected samples of the leak and water samples from an unnamed creek downstream, which will help inform whether there was any impact to the environment. 'The EPA's investigation is continuing.' Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment president Kathy Cowley told Daily Mail Australia that she had no idea until this week about the 'concerning' incident and needed more detail to comment further. It's the second time in a year that Ku-ring-gai Council has been in hot water with the EPA. 'Sediment-laden water' was detected leaking from Pymble's Norman Griffiths Oval into a creek in Lane Cove National Park on at least three occasions in April 2024 following heavy rain. The council has long hailed itself as 'Sydney's green and clean heart' for its bushland, waterways, fauna, and nationally significant ecological communities. It also regards itself, in council reports, as the last remaining area of biodiversity significance in metropolitan Sydney.
Top Gear
13 hours ago
- Top Gear
Aston Martin Vanquish Volante Price & Specs
Advertisement Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.
