KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 — Fewer Malaysians married last year compared to 2016, but the good news is that fewer also got divorced, data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) released today showed.
The number of marriages in Malaysia fell from 200,274 in 2016 to 190,532 in 2017, with the crude marriage rate per 1,000 population also slipping from 6.3 (2016) to 5.9 (2017).
The drop in marriages was seen in both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities in Malaysia, but Muslims still have a higher crude marriage rate.
For Muslim-Malaysians, the number of marriages recorded shrunk by 6.1 per cent from 142,712 to 134,008, with the crude marriage rate dropped from 7.4 to 6.8 per 1,000 Muslim population.
In comparison, the crude marriage rate among non-Muslims decreased from 4.7 to 4.5.
The figures indicated that men in Malaysia tend to marry and divorce at an older age, while women tend to do so at a slightly younger age.
The median age where Malaysian men and women got married in 2017 was at 29 and 26 respectively.
Meanwhile, the median age for men getting divorced was 37, compared to 34 for women.
The number of marriages decreased 4.9 per cent from 200,274 (2016) to 190,532 (2017). The crude marriage rate per 1,000 population declined from 6.3 (2016) to 5.9 (2017). https://t.co/mHfmboauxQ pic.twitter.com/xIkdpi9bqH
— DOSM (@StatsMalaysia) December 28, 2018
These figures match the 2017 situation in Malaysia, where those in the 25-29 age group recorded the highest number of marriages in comparison to other age groups, while those aged 30-34 made up the largest group of divorcees.
This was regardless of their gender.
The DOSM data also showed a higher general marriage rate among men, with 47.2 per 1,000 unmarried men aged above 18 becoming grooms, compared to women at 44 per 1,000 unmarried females aged 16 and above.
In contrast, the general divorce rate among women was higher than men at 7 per 1,000 married females aged 16 and above calling time on their marriages, compared to 6.5 per 1,000 married men aged 18 and above.
Overall, the number of divorces in Malaysia decreased from 51,642 to 49,965. But the crude divorce rate remained unchanged at 1.6 per 1,000 population.
The falling trend was consistent between Muslims and non-Muslims.
For the statistics involving Muslims, DOSM had obtained the data from state Islamic religious departments, except for Johor, Selangor and Sarawak where the figures were obtained from the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim).
