Affluent married individuals hold on average £791,000 in wealth, compared with £653,000 for divorced individuals, a gap of 18% according to a new report.

This leaves divorce costing on average £138,000, according to the report from Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management.

The wealth gap was wider for women. The gap for divorced women to married women was £153,000 compared to £113,000 for men.

The number of affluent divorced people has risen from 1.369m to 1.436m over the past two years.

Divorcees were wealthier than they were two years ago, with total wealth up 8.7% to £937.8bn and average wealth up 1.2% to £576,610.

Divorced women accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total number of affluent divorced people.

Christine Ross, head of private office (north) and client director at Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management said: “Divorce, no matter how amicable, has a major impact on people’s lives and their long-term average wealth – engendering a £138,000 gap between married individuals and divorced people.

“The impact is worse for divorced women compared with married women and divorced men, but there is some positive news in that divorced people are generally becoming wealthier. This could be down to more people taking advice from someone independent who can help them find a financial solution which works for both parties.”

The research was based on Government data on the wealth of those with a household net financial wealth of over £200,000.