• 9,439 divorces where the husband was over 60 in 2011, up 73% since 1991
  
• Among women over 60 it has risen by 81 per cent in two decades
• ONS says couples no longer feel social pressure to stay together
• Rising life expectancy also means fewer marriages end in death
• Lawyers warn the grass is not always greener and new partners struggle
  

By Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor

PUBLISHED: 06:21 EST, 6 August 2013 | UPDATED: 07:23 EST, 6 August 2013

A generation of ‘silver splitters’ are divorcing in their retirement because they no longer feel pressure from friends and family to stay together, it emerged today.

While the overall number of divorces continues to fall, there is a surge among the over-60s calling time on their marriages.

Experts blame the end of the stigma of divorce and the fact that more working women have built up a nest egg which means they can afford to leave their husband.

And with an ever-aging population, fed-up spouses are choosing to separate rather than wait for their other half to die.

It also found that there has been a ‘loss of stigma in being divorced’.

In 1991, there were 404,000 divorced people aged 60 and over in England and Wales, a figure which increased three-fold to 1.3 million by 2010.

‘As it becomes more common to be divorced, there are fewer stigmas attached,’ the ONS added.

The growth in the number of working women also appears to make divorce more likely.

In 1971 barely half of women aged 16 to 64 were in work but by 2012 it had reached two thirds.

The ONS said: ‘This means that women have become more financially independent and are more likely to have built up their own pensions.

‘Therefore in general women are now more able to support themselves outside of marriage than in the past.’

Actress Penelope Keith has blamed a surge in divorces among baby boomer couples for driving up property prices in the Home Counties, as newly-single women in their 50s and 60s bought up flats and cottages.

In an interview in April the actress, 73, said: 'If only we could educate people to go on living together for longer. It’s all these single dwellings, all these women in their 50s and 60s who suddenly want their own space, to be their own people. To do what?’

Even allowing for the increase in population, the overall divorce rate is falling.

There were 10.8 divorces per 1,000 married men in 2011, down from 13.6 in 1991.

But among men aged 60 or over there were 1.6 divorces per 1,000 married men in 1991, rising to 2.3 per 1,000 in 2011.

In 2011 just two men aged 60 or over were divorced from a wife aged 20-24, while a further 31 split from wives aged 25-29.

Women with toyboys seemed to fare better, with no divorces between over-60 women and men under 25.

However, lawyers warned that the growing trend in divorces among over-60s does not always bring happiness.

Julian Hawkhead, partner at Stowe Family Law, said: 'I am ruefully told on many occasions by my clients that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

'Ones long suffering spouse may have learned to live with different moods and habits but a new partner at an older age may find them less than palatable after a while.

'Worst of all, later unions could lead to bigger financial settlements if it all goes wrong, even after a short time, leaving one completely cleaned out and no opportunity to rebuild wealth.'