The same sex divorce rate isn't one number. No single country's data covers this well. The clearest evidence comes from countries that register marriages nationally and have tracked same-sex couples long enough to measure outcomes.

The CDC tracks the overall US divorce rate: 2.4 per 1,000 population as of 2023. It doesn't break the gay marriage divorce rate or lesbian marriage divorce rate out separately. See Marble's overview of the state of divorce in the US today for how that overall number has moved.

Statistics Netherlands, the Dutch government's statistics office, followed couples who married in 2010 for 10 years. 26 percent of female couples had divorced. So had 14 percent of male couples and 16 percent of opposite-sex couples.

A 2025 study in Advances in Life Course Research used Finland's national marriage registers, over the same 10-year window. About 40 percent of female couples divorced. The divorce rate for gay men was 24 percent, and for opposite-sex couples it was 21 percent.

Sweden's registers tell a similar story. A Demography study covering 1995 to 2012 found the gay divorce rate tracked closely with heterosexual marriages, at about 30 percent for both. The same-sex divorce rate for female couples ran closer to 40 percent.

A 2023 Journal of Family History study looked at couples at the 20-year mark. Male-male marriages had a slightly lower divorce risk than male-female marriages. Female-female marriages ran about 29 percent higher than female-male marriages.

The UK's newest numbers fit the same pattern. The Office for National Statistics reported 2023 dissolution rates of 7.4 per 1,000 male civil partners. Female civil partners came in at 11.2 per 1,000, a notably higher rate.

Duration tells a similar story. Same-sex partnerships that end typically end faster. The median is 7.2 years for male couples and 6.3 years for female couples, against 12.7 years for opposite-sex marriages.

No credible source supports it. Versions of "lesbian divorce rate 75 percent" and "lesbian divorce rate 70 percent" show up across TikTok, Reddit, and Quora as a stated fact. Neither traces back to a government statistics agency or a peer-reviewed study. The highest rate in any of the research above is 40 percent, over a 10-year period, in Finland and Sweden. Even that's the outlier, not the norm.

Some version of this claim likely traces back to a Williams Institute analysis of same-sex couples in New Hampshire and Vermont. It found annual dissolution rates of roughly 1 to 2 percent a year, on par with or below the rate for different-sex couples in those states. That narrow, specific estimate bears no real resemblance to "70 to 75 percent." A small academic number appears to have turned into a much bigger, unsourced one as it got repeated online.

A widespread misconception: a stat showing up a lot online doesn't mean it's been verified. None of the places where this figure shows up cite an original source. That's a signal on its own.

Three things are happening at once. There are real differences between countries. There are real differences between male and female same-sex couples in some places, but not others. And one pattern is more consistent than either of those: same-sex marriages generally end sooner than opposite-sex marriages do.

Researchers don't point to one cause. The Finnish study above looked directly at intermarriage (partners born in different countries), religious affiliation, and income. Shared religious affiliation lowered divorce risk across all couple types. A higher-earning second partner made opposite-sex marriages less stable, but made same-sex marriages more stable, the opposite effect. Even after adjusting for those factors, female couples still carried roughly double the divorce risk of opposite-sex couples in that dataset.

Other researchers point to differences in how quickly couples move toward marriage, and to broader patterns in who initiates divorce and why. None of these explanations are settled, and they don't hold consistently across every country studied. Norway's newest data shows a different dynamic. Male same-sex couples there have a slightly lower divorce risk than opposite-sex couples do, unlike the pattern in the Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden.

Comparing the gay divorce rate vs. straight couples, and the lesbian divorce rate vs. straight couples, turns out to be the sturdier finding. Same-sex marriages last 6 to 7 years on average, when they end. Opposite-sex marriages last 12.7 years. That gap shows up across multiple datasets, not just one country.

Some of this may be structural. Same-sex marriage is still legally recent in most countries. Early same-sex marriages may include couples who married quickly once it became possible, without the years of relationship history many opposite-sex couples had first.

Post-2015, same-sex marriage and divorce follow the same state property laws as any other marriage. Community property states (California, Texas, Arizona) start from the position that marital property belongs equally to both spouses. How it's actually split varies by state. California requires a mandatory 50/50 division. Texas and Arizona use a "just and right" or equitable standard instead, so courts there can divide things unevenly based on fault or need. Equitable distribution states (Florida, New York, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland) divide property based on what a court finds fair, which isn't always equal.

One wrinkle is specific to LGBTQ+ couples. Some married before the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, in a state that recognized their marriage while living in one that didn't. Those couples sometimes had to travel back to the marrying state just to file for divorce. That's less common now, but it can still affect couples untangling older marriages or civil unions. Rules and cutoff dates vary by state, so a local attorney can confirm how this applies to a specific situation.

An attorney's role here isn't to explain the statistics. It's to apply the state-specific rules to your actual marriage. That means identifying which property division rules apply, and working through what happens to assets acquired before a couple could legally marry. For older marriages, it often means sorting out lingering questions from a prior civil union or domestic partnership too.

This is also where general divorce knowledge isn't quite enough. LGBTQ+ family law has its own edge cases. Attorneys with Marble handle these matters at a fixed price, so you know the cost before any work begins.

The honest answer to "what's the lesbian divorce rate" is that it depends on which country and which years you're looking at. Anyone offering one clean number without naming a source is skipping past that.

What holds up across the data is more modest than the viral version. Female same-sex couples show a higher divorce rate than male same-sex couples in every country studied here, though the size of the gap varies. Same-sex marriages of both kinds tend to end sooner than opposite-sex marriages. Neither of those is the 70 percent headline making the rounds online.

Disclaimer: Laws and procedures vary by state and jurisdiction. This article provides general information and should not be considered legal advice for your specific situation. For personalized guidance, consult with an attorney.