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A landmark study released last year found that less than half of those aged 55 to 74, who had gone through divorce, owned their own homes compared with three-quarters of their married peers.
Researchers at Melbourne's La Trobe University found one in four single divorced men, and one in three single divorced women, aged 55 to 75, had experienced financial hardship in the previous year. The figure for married couples was one in 10.
"More and more people will carry into their later life the financial effects of divorce in terms of home ownership, assets and income," La Trobe researcher David de Vaus said.
In July research came out, also supervised by de Vaus, which found that as well as being less well off, the divorced were less happy.
Matthew Gray, who also worked on the study, said that those who divorced and stayed single were generally less happy than their peers.
"What this research shows is that there are negative financial consequences of divorce in older age and divorce has a negative effect more generally on wellbeing later in life," Gray said, adding, "The effects are negative for both men and women - but perhaps more so for women."
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