Each of these calculations has weaknesses and can be misleading[1].The following are the countries with the most annual divorces according to the United Nations in 2009.
The crude divorce rate can give a general overview of marriage in an area, but it does not take people who cannot marry into account.
In a place with large numbers of children or single adults, the crude divorce rate can seem low.
This measures the number of divorces per 1,000 women married to men, so that all unmarried persons are left out of the calculation.
Say there exists a community with 100,000 married couples, and very few people capable of marriage, for reasons such as age.
This does not equate to the proportion of marriages in a given single-year cohort that will ultimately end in divorce.
For example, during an economic downturn, some couples might postpone a divorce because they can't afford to live separately.