As coronavirus crisis restrictions caused many couples to spend unprecedented amounts of time together, some media outlets reported a surge in Finland's divorce rate due to raised tensions.
For example, Yle reported of a spike in Helsinki's divorce rate in late April. A report (in Finnish) by a government-appointed Covid-19 science panel observed a 30 percent increase in divorce applications filed in Helsinki during the crisis compared to the same period last year.
But those statistics were based on a two-week period in April. However, if the entire first half of the year is taken into account, there doesn't appear to be much evidence to suggest the epidemic crisis was the direct cause of the uptick, according to district court data collected from around the country.
Divorce applications down
For example, in Helsinki the number of divorce petitions filed at the city's district court declined by 67 during the period 1 January-8 June, compared to the previous year - representing a seven percent decrease.
Similarly, by the end of last week in Southwest Finland there were also 67 fewer divorce filings submitted than a year ago during the same period. The total number of filed divorce applications in the region during the crisis amounted to 567.
Meanwhile, in the western region of Satakunta, there were 23 fewer divorces filed during that time compared to last year, with a total of 286 divorce filings.
Regarding other regions across the country, divorce applications filed at district courts also mostly showed downward trends, with a few exceptions. For instance, divorce petitions in South Savo rose to 198, while the figure was 146 during the first half of 2019.
According to the data, there are annual variations in the country's divorce rate, and the figure is almost never steady from year to year, with the exception of Ostrobothnia, however. The western region saw no change to the divorce rate, the data showed.