Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – The number of divorces in North Rhine-Westphalia continued to decrease in 2021. At 31,891, it is at its lowest level in 40 years, as the State Statistical Office IT.NRW announced on Wednesday. With 1,736 procedures, most of the divorces took place after six years of marriage (5.4 percent), the statisticians said. On average, the marriages divorced in NRW in 2021 would have lasted 14.7 years. In 2021, the initiative for divorce proceedings came from the woman in more than half of the cases (52.4 percent). 29,562 children were affected by their parents’ divorce in 2021 – slightly more than in the previous year.