IT SEEMS more and more couples are sticking to their “I do’s” as South Africa’s divorce rate – once the highest in the world – is currently its lowest in 17 years.

The drop in the break-up of marriages has been attributed to various factors including the recession – when people cannot afford to get divorced – increased emphasis on marriage counselling, more readily available help with relationship difficulties and people turning to religious faith.

Evidence of the low divorce rate is based on the latest census statistics released by Statistics South Africa using information available from 1991 to 2007.

Just a few years ago South Africa, and more specifically Port Elizabeth, had the highest divorce rate in the world.

The StatsSA report shows that in 1991, 23 865 escaped their matrimonial union. Numbers got worse from there and reached an all-time high in 1994 when 59756 gave up on their vows. Thereafter things started getting better and in 2007 only 29639 couples got divorced.

This while the rest of the world seems to be losing the love more and more. France’s National Institute of Demographic Studies indicates one in every two marriages there ends up in divorce.

Some argue that South Africa’s declining divorce rate could be because fewer couples are tying the knot. This however cannot be the reason as statistics show the number of marriages has actually been increasing steadily.

In 2004 pastors and leaders formulated what was called the Nelson Mandela Bay Marriage and Family Commitment Policy, acknowledging marriage and family were the foundational building blocks of a healthy community.

Various goals for the future, one being to reduce the divorce rate in the city by 50% by this year, were also set.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has also committed to this fight and will be hosting a marriage counselling workshop next week to empower religious leaders with counselling skills.

Municipal spokesman Kupido Baron said the municipality had also been providing marriage counselling to its employees since 2004. Harvest Christian Church pastor Neil Dryden said recent statistics showed the country now had one of the lowest divorce rates.

But lawyer Joanne Anthony said she was surprised the divorce rate was down. “In my personal experience as a family lawyer in the past 11 years I have noticed a steady increase in divorces.

“At the Southern Divorce Court in PE, which is the local cost-effective court for divorces, there are sometimes up to almost 80 matters a day on the roll.”