Name: Silver splitters.

Age: 60 plus.

Appearance: Grey-haired, a little stressed, but free!

Who are these people? They are Britain’s hottest new demographic trend: retired divorcees.

That doesn’t shout trendiness to me. Well, you need to get with the times. According to a study by some “lettings network” called Countrywide, about 8% of privately renting tenants are now pensioners.

Is that a lot? What proportion of people are over 60? Almost a quarter, according to the 2011 Census.

Ha! So older people are actually less likely to rent privately than the rest of the population, and all this is cobblers. Not quite. Older people more often own their homes, it’s true, so renting among them was never common, but now the practice is rising fast. Just 5.2% of them were renting in 2007, compared with the 8% now. Moreover, among those who do, 53% live alone.

Obviously, it’s fascinating to hear about rental rates by age group, but why are you telling me this? Because of what it says about divorce. This is the story of old people getting divorced more often than they used to.

I see. Have they become more annoying to live with? I don’t have data on that, but probably not. You need to see it within the divorce story as a whole.

Tell a simplified version quickly. Pre-1945: divorce is taboo and very difficult, so people hardly ever do it. 1945-1970: divorce gets easier and people split up in ever greater numbers, breathing a sigh of relief. 1970-2000: divorce numbers stay high. 2000 onwards: divorce slowly declines as people get better at choosing who to marry, and often don’t marry at all.

Thanks. But now that people live longer and healthier lives, and because they marry and have children later, the average age of divorce is getting older and older. People can be 60 when their kids leave home, and still feel they have decades of good life left in them. Meet the silver splitters!

So I can blame old people for the housing crisis? Not really. That has many interlocking causes.

Pity. You can blame them for Brexit though.

Do say: “I want custody of the potting shed!”

Don’t say: “I hear she’s got herself a toy boy of 55.”