A Marriage-Cohort Analysis of Legal Separations in Italy.

We present the trends in legal separation in Italy by marriage-cohort and duration, discussing also the future tendencies. To catch a glimpse of the future of legal marital dissolution in Italy: (i) the probabilities of legal separation by duration are projected; (ii) a territorial analysis of the twenty Italian regions is carried out, putting forth the possible explanations for territorial differences; (iii) Italy and Spain (where divorce became legal in 1981) are compared, and other western countries are considered, where marital dissolutions became widespread earlier (USA, UK, and France). In the Appendix, the complete legal separation life-table for the marriage cohorts 1969-2003 are report.