It would appear that fewer Canadian couples are getting divorced these days, and those of them who are, are waiting until they are older to untie the knot, says Statistics Canada.

The number of divorces has dropped for two years in a row, according to new data collected by the federal Justice Department.

The number of divorces is down more than 27 per cent from its all-time peak of divorces in 1987. In that year, about 96,000 couples had a divorce finalized. In 2002, 70,155 couples divorced, down 1.3 per cent from 2001 and 1.4 per cent from 2000.

That's about 223.7 divorces for every 100,000 people in the population. That meant the crude divorce rate fell 3.2 per cent between 2000 and 2002.

The number of divorces fell during that time in nine of the provinces and territories. The biggest drop was in New Brunswick, where the decline was 14.9 per cent, and in Saskatchewan, where it was 10.7 per cent. On the other hand, divorces were up in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon.

Though fewer couples are getting divorced, fewer couples are getting married. Throughout the 1990s, the marriage rate in Canada dropped slowly. It rose again in 1999 and 2000, but then declined sharply in 2001.

On average, couples have been waiting longer to divorce for each of the last 17 years, Statistics Canada also found.

Since 1986, the average age at divorce has increased by 4.1 years for men and by 4.2 years for women. In 2002, the average man was 43.1 years old when his marriage ended, while the average woman was 40.5 years old.

As the same time, those couples getting divorced also waited longer to get married in the first place. On average, men who divorced in 2002 were married at the age of 28.9, while women had married at the age of 26.3.

Divorce risks falls after 5th year

But that's not to say that younger couples are at less risk of splitting up. The majority of divorces in 2001 and 2002, about 60 per cent, were of couples married for fewer than 15 years.

For couples divorcing in 2002, the average duration of marriage was 14.2 years, up 0.2 years from 2000 and 1.4 from 1993.

And it would appear that the time that couples are most at risk of ending their marriage is between their second and fifth anniversary.

Before the first anniversary of marriage, the bloom is still on the rose: There was less than one divorce for every 1,000 marriages in 2002. After the first anniversary, the divorce rate was 4.3 divorces per 1,000 marriages.

But that jumped to 18 divorces per 1,000 after the second anniversary, 25.0 divorces after the third, up to the peak of 25.7 after the fourth anniversary.

By the time the fifth anniversary rolled around, the risk of divorce dropped, and continued to decrease slowly for each additional year of marriage.

The proportion of marriages expected to end in divorce by the 30th wedding anniversary was 37.9 per cent in 2001 and 37.6 per cent in 2002. These rates hardly differed from the proportion of 37.7 per cent in 2000.

Statscan found wide variations in divorce rates across the country. Couples in Newfoundland and Labrador are the least likely to divorce, with 2002 figures showing 21.8 per cent of marriages expected to end in divorce within 30 years of marriage.

In contrast, 47.6 per cent of couples in Quebec are expected to divorce within this time span.