Marriages, divorces down in Turkey in 2020: TÜİK

ISTANBUL

Fewer people in Turkey got married and divorced in 2020 compared to the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said on Feb. 25.

“The number of people who got married was 542,314 in 2019. It was 487,270 in 2020, a 10.1 percent decrease [since the year before],” TÜİK said in its latest statistics on marriage and divorce rates.

According to TÜİK, the number of couples that divorced dropped by 13.8 percent in a year. “The number was 156,587 in 2019, while it was 135,022 in 2020,” it said.

Due to the pandemic, there was a significant decrease in marriages in April and May of 2020.

The number of marriages nosedived by 68.7 percent in April 2020 compared to the same month the year before. The decrease rate was 61.6 percent in May 2020, which coincided with most of the month of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

“On the other hand, the number of marriages increased in July at 8.2 percent and in August at 15.1 percent compared to July and August 2019,” TÜİK noted.

The province having the highest marriage rate was the southeastern province of Adıyaman, with 7.14 per 1,000 in 2020. Adıyaman was followed by neighboring Şanlıurfa with 7.13 per 1,000 and Kilis with 7.00 per 1,000.

The province having the lowest marriage rate was Gümüşhane in the Black Sea region with 4.14 per 1,000. Gümüşhane was followed by the eastern province of Tunceli with 4.18 per 1,000 and another Black Sea province, Artvin, with 4.58 per 1,000.

The number of foreign brides who married Turkish nationals was 18,909, and the number of foreign grooms who married Turkish women was 3,828 in 2020.

When foreign grooms were analyzed by citizenship, German grooms took first place with 27.6 percent of the overall number. German grooms were followed by Syrian grooms with 19.2 percent and Austrian grooms with 5.6 percent.

When foreign brides were analyzed by citizenship, Syrian brides took first place, with 14.8 percent among all foreign brides. Syrian brides were followed by Azerbaijani brides with 10.5 percent and German brides with 9.4 percent.

The province that had the highest divorce rate was the southern province of Antalya, with 2.47 per 1,000 in 2020. Antalya was followed by the western province of İzmir with 2.45 per 1,000 and the Aegean province of Muğla with 2.40 per 1,000.

The province having the lowest divorce rate was Hakkari in Turkey’s southeast with 0.24 per 1,000. This province was followed by the eastern provinces of Muş with 0.25 per 1,000 and Şırnak with 0.29 per 1,000.