Relationship toll of Victoria’s Covid pandemic revealed: See suburbs with most and least divorces

Marriage splits surged in Melbourne’s southeast during Covid, with one suburb earning the title of Victoria’s divorce capital. See which areas did better and worse.

Suburbs in Melbourne’s southeast are home to the most divorcees in Victoria as relationship experts blame the pandemic for an increase in broken marriages.

Frankston landed the title of the divorce capital of Victoria, a Herald Sun analysis of the 2021 Census data reveals.

A total of 4024 people in the area officially registered as divorced in the survey.

The figure is the highest number for any Victorian suburb or locality – ahead of Pakenham (3673), Werribee (3350) and Reservoir (3347).

Other areas to make the top ten include St Albans (3271), Berwick (2951), Melbourne (2920), Sunbury (2818) and Craigieburn (2711).

The only regional town to make the top ten was Mildura with 2842 divorcees registering in the census.

The lowest ranking suburbs for divorce were all located in regional Victoria.

This includes towns located in Western Victoria such as Weatherboard, Weering, Wombelano and Wongarra – all reporting just three divorcees.

Other regional towns north of the state – Wee Wee Rup, Woolshed Flat, Wyuna East, Youarang – and in the east – Woods Point and Yering – made the bottom ten, all also reporting three.

State-wide, the 2021 Census figures show 436,174 people, or 8.2 per cent of respondents, in Victoria responded as ‘divorced’.

This was up from 382,541, or 7.9 per cent, in 2016.

Victoria makes up nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of all divorces in the country, coming second to New South Wales (31 per cent).

Counsellor at Relationship Rescue Institute Stan Levine said Victoria’s lengthy lockdowns contributed “enormously” to broken relationships.

“So many couples going into Covid didn’t have a strong foundation,” he said.

“As soon as extra pressures come they can’t handle it.”

Mr Levine said a lot of couples struggled spending a lot more time together than usual.

“People are not used to spending all that time together and a lot of people didn’t have the skills to know how to do that,” he said.

“They are used to seeing each other on weekends or when they get home from work during the week.

“People who didn’t live in large homes also struggled to find their own personal space.”

He said lockdowns had “splintered” countless relationships.

“It was a very hard time for lots of people,” he said.

“Not being able to see friends or go out added to that.”

Mr Levine called on schools to deliver relationship skills based classes.

“Learning to have healthy intimate relationships is a basic life skill,” he said.

“It starts with education – if people are properly educated and equipped with skills we won’t see such an upward trend (in the number of divorces).”

Originally published as Relationship toll of Victoria’s Covid pandemic revealed: See suburbs with most and least divorces