(Yicai Global) Aug. 5 -- The number of couples getting divorced in China halved in the first half of the year after the country introduced a new system to allow those seeking a separation to reconsider during a so-called calling-off period.

Just 966,000 Chinese couples filed for divorce in the six months ended June 30, according to figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

There are many reasons for the decline, but one key factor is the cooling-off period, Prof. Dong Yuzheng, a population expert and director of the Guangdong Academy of Population Development, told Yicai Global. It allows couples to rationally consider their children, property, wider family and other social factors, he said.

A 30-day cooling-off period was added to divorce proceedings in January. If both parties fail to appear in person to request a divorce certificate, their application will be considered withdrawn.

The true picture of its affect on the divorce rate will not be known until the end of this year, Dong said, as the system is new and many people may not know about it.

The top 10 provinces with the most divorces in the first half were Henan, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Hebei and Zhejiang. The first four had more than 60,000 divorce filings. Henan ranked first with 70,000.

Why did Henan have the most divorces in the first half? Marriage and divorce filings are closely related to household registration, Dong said. Henan has the largest registered population in the country, so it is normal to have the largest number of divorces. But the relationship is not necessarily correlated.

Henan also had the largest number of marriages registered. It had 340,000 weddings in the first half, 46,000 more than second-placed Guangdong, the statistics showed.

Editor: Peter Thomas