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A DROP in divorce rates is not a sign of more marital bliss but an aversion to tying the knot in the first place, solicitors have told the Daily Echo.
The country saw 132,562 couples split in 2006, the lowest figure for 22 years, according to the office of national statistics.
But John Collins, senior partner at Harold G Walker solicitors of Bournemouth, said: "It's nothing to do with people getting married more to the right people, it's more to do with the fact people aren't getting married.
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"They might think What have I got to lose, or gain?'."
Bournemouth had 997 marriages in 2004, down from 1,138 in 1994.
The percentage of first time marriages went up from 51 per cent to 60 per cent over the same period - perhaps a sign people are becoming more wary of remarrying.
Tanya Hall, family solicitor for Coles Miller, at their Charminster office, said: "I think there are more people living together and not entering into marriage which is perhaps why the divorce rates are going down."
She added: "One of the things that I have noticed is recently people married for 25 or 30 years that are getting divorced now."
Mr Collins said: "We are doing far more break downs between people who are not married.
"A few years ago unmarried couples would have been a small percentage of the work. Now it's about 20 per cent."
Roni Jones, manager of Relate Bournemouth and Poole, and the Daily Echo's agony aunt, said the main thing that determined whether couple worked at a relationship was their "investment in their children".
She said: "You can sell a house, you can divide the assets of a business, but it's not to easy to do that with the moral and emotional obligation involved with children."
She said Wimborne had several years ago been identified as the UK's happiest place to love - and it also had the highest national marriage rates.
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