Marriages, divorces on rise in Turkey, says TÜİK

ANKARA

More people in Turkey got married and divorced in 2021 compared to the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said, in contrast to a sharp decrease seen in 2020 due to reasons believed mostly to be caused by the pandemic.

The figures show the number of couples who got married in 2021 increased by 15.1 percent and similarly, the number of couples who got divorced decreased by 27.4 percent. The number of couples that got married last year was 561,710, while 174,085 couples divorced.

The crude marriage rate, which measures the number of marriages per thousand among the population, clocked up to a rate of 0.68 percent in 2021, down from 0.69 percent in 2020. Statistics also show the average number of divorces was 1.75 per thousand.

The highest divorce rate occurred in the Aegean province of İzmir and the metropolis was followed by the Mediterranean province of Antalya and the southwestern province of Uşak, respectively.

While the highest marriage rate was in Kilis, a province on Turkey’s Syrian border where the rate was 8.27 per thousand last year, it was followed by Şanlıurfa and Adıyaman, two provinces that are very close to Kilis.

The provinces with the highest marriage rates also give a hint on which nationalities Turkish men marry the most. As it was last year, Syrians topped the number of foreign brides at 14.6 percent.

They were followed by Azerbaijani brides with 10.1 percent and Uzbek brides with 9.8 percent.

However, the number of foreign grooms was 4,976 in 2020, 0.8 percent of the total number of grooms, according to figures. When the foreign grooms were examined based on their nationality, the Germans took first place with 25.2 percent.

They were followed by Syrians with 20.7 percent and Austrians with 5.5 percent.

The most significant rise in marriages was recorded in May and June, a period when coronavirus-related measures were eased. While the number of marriages was 21, 676 in May last year, it increased more than three times to 75,137 in June.

When the number of divorces was analyzed by months, there was a significant decrease in August due to the judicial holiday. While the number of divorces was 3,779 in August, it increased nearly six times in September after the judicial holiday ended, reaching 21,955.

According to the statistics, more than 33 percent of divorces took place within the first five years of marriage.

Statistics also showed an increase in the mean age of those getting married for the first time among both men and women. Men usually marry at 28.1, while women marry at 25.4. The age difference between couples stood at about three years, according to the figures.