Suède : les homosexuels divorcent trois fois plus que les hétérosexuels.
Homosexual couples are up to three times more likely to divorce than married opposite-sex couples, a Swedish study shows. Based on national registers from the 1990s, the study by Gunnar Andersson and colleagues offers the first systematic review of same-sex unions and divorce rates. It shows that the number of same-sex registered partnerships in Sweden and Norway is not large - 1526 of these in Sweden between 1995 and 2002 compared with 280,000 opposite-sex marriages over the same period. The ratio of 5 out of 1000 is "considerably lower than the various estimates of fractions [of the population that are] … homosexuals," says Andersson. In , 62 per cent of same-sex couples in legal unions were male, and in more than a third of those one partner was at least 10 years older than the other, compared to about one out of seven lesbian couples and one out of 10 opposite-sex couples. Risk factors for divorce were very similar to those for opposite-sex couples (including being young, less educated and previously married) but same-sex couples had unusually high rates of divorce - even for where marriage rates are low and divorce rates are high. Overall, gay male couples were 1.5 times as likely (50 per cent more likely) to divorce within the eight-year study period and lesbian couples were 2.67 times as likely (167 per cent more likely) to divorce. After controlling for demographic variables, gay partners remained 1.35 times or 35 per cent more likely to divorce and lesbian partners three times or 200 percent more likely to divorce as opposite-sex married couples. The authors speculate on the role of children in reducing divorce risk but say more research is needed to determine why same-sex legal unions are more likely to break down. Same-sex Unions and Divorce Risk: Data from Sweden By Maggie Gallagher and Joshua K Baxter, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy