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Caroline Marcus
April 6, 2008

For single women looking for another reason to make the tree change, this could be it.

Women in city areas are more likely to be separated or divorced than their country counterparts, research has found.

University of Adelaide geography professor Graeme Hugo said 2006 census figures showed there was a higher proportion of divorced or separated women than men in major cities.

In populations of more than 100,000 people, 12.5 per cent of women were from broken marriages, compared to 9.6 per cent of men.

Meanwhile, rural areas with less than 200 people had the lowest proportion of divorced or separated women - 9.8 per cent of women compared to 12.8 per cent of men.

Country towns with between 200 and 1000 residents had the most even proportion of divorced or separated men and women, with 12.6 per cent and 12.8 per cent respectively.

But Professor Hugo said it was difficult to determine whether the rate of divorce was lower in the country because there were no statistics.

"One of the things you could hypothesise here is after divorce or separation in the rural areas, maybe the women migrate to the cities," he said.

"There might be more of a tendency for the woman to leave rather than the man. They might be the farmers, for example, so they're more likely to remain bound [to their property]."

In separate research, community web portal OurPatch.com.au said most rural Australians believed their marriages were less likely to end in divorce than those in cities.

Of 538 people surveyed, 62 per cent said that marriages had a better chance of lasting in the country, with reasons including that people married partners they had known their entire lives, there was less stress, marriage was taken more seriously and country people had "a greater sense of morality".