When divorce courts began to reopen in the summer of 2021, a divorce lawyer reported working 16-hour days just to cope with inquiries from Americans who wanted out from their marriages.

And business didn’t let up throughout the year, even over the Christmas period, which is usually a more sedate time when it comes to divorces, as couples want to avoid tension among their families during the celebrations.

Divorce inquiries were reported to be 45% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Americans searched online for the term “divorce lawyers” over 6 million times during the pandemic, according to a study by DivorceAnswers. com.

The study also broke down these searches across states, which were weighted by population.

The state in #1 place with the highest number of searches frelative to population size was New Jersey, with 238,560 online enquiries – around 3.4% when compared against a population of 6,919,226.

Couples in Oklahoma were comparatively among the happiest during lockdown, as they placed in 39th position nationally. People here made 48,720 online divorce inquiries, representing just 1.6% of the adult population.

In last place with the fewest number of enquiries was Alaska, with just 5,040 online searches for ‘divorce lawyers’ during the pandemic.

While some studies have observed that divorces in some states actually fell during the pandemic, what is clear is that the pandemic has been a source for disputes among separating couples that simply didn’t exist prior to 2020.

The lockdowns enforced as a result of the pandemic appeared to have led to a flood of divorce inquiries from unhappy couples across the country. Indeed, Kris Lippi from ISoldMy-House.com reported that inquiries for 1-bedroom rentals increased 37% since March 2020.

Lockdowns were undoubtedly a contributing factor to this trend.

Furthermore, Lauren Cook-McKay from DivorceAnswers. com observed that “spending more time together, having more time in general and having limited opportunities to leave the house may have resulted in some discovering their partner’s hidden traits, such as extramarital affairs or dishonest behavior.”

Another less reported reason is that the financial turmoil caused by the pandemic meant that getting divorced made more financial sense – that is, if the bread-winning spouse lost their job, the subsequent loss of income would mean a lower settlement.