About 2.87 million Chinese couples broke up in 2011, a 7.3 percent increase from the year before, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

A total of 9,690 civil affairs bureaus nationwide registered about 2.21 million divorces last year, while another 667,000 divorces were handled by the courts, the report said.

However, the number of couples getting married also increased, with 13.02 million couples tying the knot nationwide, and an increase of 4.9 percent from the previous year, according to the report.

The main age group for people getting married was 20 to 24, accounting for 36.6 percent of total marriages in 2011.