London, Jun 30 (IANS): Divorce cases in Britain have fallen to their lowest level innearly 40 years, Daily Mail reported Saturday.

There was a one percent fall last year and a larger drop is predicted as divorce petitions fell three percent.

Although fewer couples are choosing to marry, it appears those who do are older and more likely to stay together.

Divorce became common in the 1970s after the introduction of quickie and no-fault divorces, and reached a peak of more than 165,000 in 1993.

But since then - apart from a brief rise after 2000 and a one-year blip in 2010 - official splits have waned, the newspaper said.

There were 119,610 divorces in 2011, one percent fewer than the 121,265 in 2010 and there were 129,298 divorce petitions filed - down three percent from the 133,499 in 2010.

A ministry of justice analyst said: "The decline reflects the smaller married population and a higher average age at marriage.

"The younger a person marries, the higher the probability of divorce so the trend to delay marriage has contributed to the decline in divorce over the last 20 years."