SINGAPORE, July 30 — Despite the enhanced incentives to nudge Singaporeans towards tying the knot and having children, the number of marriages fell last year for the first time in three years.
There were 26,254 marriages — civil and Muslim — last year, down six per cent from 2012, despite the rise in the number of Muslim marriages.
The marriage rates for men and women fell to their lowest since 2010. For every 1,000 unmarried residents aged 15 to 49, there were 40.5 married men and 36.9 married women, down from 43.8 and 39.4, respectively.
On the other hand, more couples went their separate ways, with divorces and annulments rising four per cent to 7,525 last year, while the general divorce rate for married male and female residents aged 20 years and above rose. The top reasons for divorce were unreasonable behaviour in civil marriages and infidelity or extra-marital affairs for Muslim divorces.
These trends are typical of any developed country and do not indicate that the Marriage and Parenthood Package, which has been enhanced three times since it was introduced in 2001, is not working, said parliamentarians TODAY spoke to.
Mr Zainal Sapari (Pasir Ris-Punggol), a member of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Social and Family Development, said: “I don’t see the package as trying to encourage more people to get married. I think it is actually meant to get married couples settled down more quickly.”
Agreeing, fellow committee member Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon GRC) said the package cannot address the “emotional push and pull in marriage”.
Academics TODAY spoke to were also not surprised by the findings. National University of Singapore sociologist, Dr Paulin Straughan, commented on the rising divorce numbers: “We now marry for personal satisfaction, so when the relationship is no longer socially rewarding, many do not feel the need to put up the charade of a happy marital union.”
The figures released by the Department of Statistics yesterday showed that more Singaporeans are delaying marriage. Marriage rates fell among those aged below 30 years last year, compared with a decade ago, but rose for those aged 30 and above.
Dr Straughan said the trend of delayed marriages will continue as more young Singaporeans are focusing on their careers first.
But the dip could also be due to perceptions of auspicious years to marry, said Ms Anita Fam, a Families for Life council member.
“For marriages, there are some years that are more auspicious than others. If you look at the figures, they don’t deviate that much,” she said, adding that it is not uncommon to have a dip in marriage rates after a spike during more auspicious years.
Auspicious dates in 2011 and 2012 saw a surge of couples rushing to marry on 11/11/11 and 12/12/12, causing the number of marriages to jump to 27,258 and 27,936 respectively, compared with 24,363 marriages in 2010.
Meanwhile, more men with primary or lower education were marrying women with at least secondary education. Between 2003 and 2013, this proportion increased from 54 per cent to 74 per cent for grooms in civil marriages and from 49 per cent to 65 per cent for grooms in Muslim marriages.
And at one-quarter of all marriages in 2013, remarriages constituted a higher proportion of total marriages compared with a decade ago. — TODAY
