I see a lot of people answering this as if it's a bad thing that this is happening. It's disappointing to me that people don't think for themselves and just go along with traditionalist ideology. Marriage is based on the lie that you can be sure you'll be in love with someone for the rest of your life.. the heart doesn't work that way. Love doesn't work that way. Everything changes over time. So it's a good thing if people are getting more divorces. They're being truer to their hearts. If it seems infidelitous, it's merely insincerity matching insincerity (the insincerity of the idea of marriage). It's a healthy reaction to a false premise.

Marriage is also a kind of contract whose purpose is to feel security by insuring that neither partner will leave the other--even if it would be the natural thing to do. And as soon as two people are bound to each other with this kind of security, the romance is killed. The spark is replaced by mere familiarity.

[01-13-19]

Are divorce rates on the rise?

Assuming the case, more people don't want to stay married.

Like many complex things there are likely a lot of factors.

Women (in many places) don't lose much in divorce. They continue to receive money, they (usually) keep the kids, the house. This may be why most divorces are initiated by women.

Marriage doesn't make as much sense in modern western culture, or it's not as appealing.

People live longer, human lifetime commitment is naturally only x many years(?) (Though life expectancy outpaced divorce I think)

Churches/ religious organizations are weaker. Communities are weaker. Social pressure to stay together may be decreased.

Religion and said sensibility aren't as present in the areas like law and such, where divorce was previously seen as more taboo.

Media / commercialism prefers people who go out and spend, single people do that more(?) So they explicitly or implicitly glamorize and 'sell' this idea.

Leftism / Collectivism seeks to control individuals. Women (sometimes with children) can be dependent on the state for support and protection. They favor more government entitlements and benefits. It's a moral excuse for government to assert greater control and resources. People in government enjoy more power, they explicitly or implicitly seek to enable this environment.

Fewer women are having children, this makes it easier to divorce (and less evil/sadistic. Though given that I wonder why get married? <shrugs>)

Culture project self-indulgent fantasies as ideals. People's expectations are severely out of whack(?) They seek someone to be 'part o their story', not compromise, which might be fine to a point. But they don't clearly communicate these expectations? Maybe they don't know they have said expectations. Or they know they'll be rejected out of hand, so they try to manipulate the situation into said fantasy. … I'm sure that's 100% them and I'm not going out a limb <facetious-smirk> … <shrugs> but that kinda of thing could be another factor.

Without good models presented: culture / media / community / religion. People don't know what to do, and people don't know what to expect.

Maybe they're working from inconsistent models/expectations? Modern life has many different ideals and cultures coming together, more so than in the past. People could be following their traditional models, just different traditions. They assume their traditional models without working out the differences(?)

Maybe traditions / cultures / ideas are ingrained. People might enter into a thing eye-wide-opened with the intention to compromise, but not realizing their 'programming' prevents it when time to do so comes.

Life is less guided and on rails like it used to be. Old gender roles are eroding. Less women are less likely to sacrifice their entire life for fucked up social expectations. Some men have a tendency of replacing their wives with a younger model of the same type. Some women break up due to availability of younger lovers without fixed expectations of marriage. Economy makes traditional family life less possible and those who want kids are more often on their own. General economic habitats offer lesser chances of finding a partner at all and lesser chance of finding a permanent partner. The old conservative farts are pressing women and men into old moulds of gender roles and thus breaking them apart. Society still has a marriage role model that sets limits of expectations sky high and at the same time undermines the social and financial possibilities to actually meet even low expectations. ..so much more ...