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More marriages, fewer divorces in Singapore in 2017

A photographer takes pictures of a newlywed couple kissing on Cavenagh bridge along the Singapore river on 16 April 2015. PHOTO: Roslan Rahman/AFP
A photographer takes pictures of a newlywed couple kissing on Cavenagh bridge along the Singapore river on 16 April 2015. PHOTO: Roslan Rahman/AFP

The year 2017 saw more registered marriages and fewer divorces and annulments as compared to the previous year, according to the Singapore Department of Statistics (DOS).

There were a total of 28,212 couples who tied the knot in 2017, up 0.9 per cent from the 27,971 in 2016. This was partly due to a rise in both civil and Muslim marriages last year, the government agency said.

Meanwhile, some 7,578 marriages ended in a divorce or an annulment in 2017, 0.5 per cent lower than the 7,614 couples who called it quits in the previous year. This was due to the decline in Muslim divorces, which more than offset the slight increase in civil divorces, DOS noted.

The general marriage rate for men increased from 44.4 marriages per thousand unmarried males aged 15-49 years in 2016 to 45.7 in 2017. Similarly for women, the rate rose from 41.6 marriages per thousand unmarried females aged 15-49 years to 42.8 over the same period.

By contrast, the general divorce rate fell to 6.9 male divorcees for every thousand married males aged 20 years and over in 2017, lower than the rate of 7.1 in 2016. Similarly, the rate for females fell to 6.5 per thousand married females aged 20 years and over in 2017, from 6.6 in the previous year.

Meanwhile, inter-ethnic marriages continued to increase in 2017 to 22.1 per cent of total marriages, up from 16.4 per cent in 2007.

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