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The number of civil partnerships performed fell twelve per cent over the past year, while dissolutions – equivalent to divorce – have nearly doubled since 2008. The majority of dissolutions were to female couples.

The Independent newspaper reports that new civil partnerships fell to 6,281 in 2009, down from 7,169 the previous year. The number of civil partnership dissolutions rose over the same period, almost doubling to 351 from 180 in 2008.

Across the UK, females have been the more likely to end their union. In England and Wales, female couples made up 63 per cent of civil partnerships dissolved in 2009. In Scotland the equivalent figure was more pronounced, at 71 per cent.

Between December 2005, when Civil Partnership Act came into force, and the end of last year, there have been 40,237 civil partnerships formed. Their popularity peaked in the early days of the Act, with 4,869 performed in the first quarter of 2006, as long-term couples took advantage of the change in law. The average per quarter in 2009 was 1,570.

For a civil partnership to be dissolved in the UK, the couple must have been in a registered civil partnership, or officially recognised foreign equivilant, for at least twelve months.

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