Divorce in West Java

This paper traces trends in divorce rates in West Java over the past 40 years. West Java’s divorce rate was among the highest in the world in the 1950s and 1960s; by the mid-1980s, it was about one fifth as high as that in the United States. Regional differentials were, and still are, quite pronounced. The differentials appear to be related more to cultural than to socio-economic differences. The sharp declines have been related to social and economic changes, prominent among which were rising levels of income, expanded education and work opportunities for girls, and a breaking down of traditional attitudes through improved transport and communications. Concurrent with, and largely consequent on these changes has been a rising age at marriage of females and decline in arranged marriage, thus reducing the prevalence of those marriages traditionally most prone to divorce. Ideology and legal changes also played a part in the decline in divorce though the legal changes followed, rather than led, changed community attitudes.