Marital instability in Italy. Who divorces?

Over the last twenty years, the intimate sphere and the conjugal behaviour of italians is radically changed. Together with the increase of the number of mixed marriages and cohabitations we note, in fact, the increase in the divorce rate too (for example, in the early Nineties the total number of divorces was 27.682 and at the beginning of year 2010 this number was 54.160, almost double). The growing number of legal separations and divorces, therefore, appears as a clear statistical indicator of a new and emerging phenomenon in our national context: precisely, the conflict within the couple and the resulting marital instability. For this reason, the aim of this research is to study this topic with particular attention to what has happened in Italy from 1990 onwards. The number of legal separations (we prefer study this indicator because it's the first step to apply for annulment of marriage in the italian civil legislation) is going to be analyzed through the use of secondary data by ISTAT - National Institute of Statistics with reference to educational level of spouses and their employment status.