THE number of divorces declined by 7.1% from 47,272 in 2020 to 43,934 last year, according to the latest Marriage and Divorce Statistics released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Chief Statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin in a statement today said the decrease could be attributed to the closure of the Syariah Court, Civil Court and National Registration Department during the movement-control order from March 18, 2020 to November 21, 2021, and the limited number of cases that could be handled by the court following the standard operating procedure during the implementation of the recovery movement-control order.

He said the three states that recorded the highest decline rate in Muslim divorces were Sarawak, followed by Perlis and Penang.

However, non-Muslim divorces increased by 30.4% from 9,419 in 2020 to 12,284 last year with Selangor, Kedah and Kuala Lumpur recording the highest increase.

For marriages, Uzir said there was an increase of 15.4% from 186,297 marriages in 2020 to 214,943 in 2021.

“Three states that recorded the highest increase of Muslim marriages were Kelantan (61.3%) followed by Labuan (56%) and Putrajaya (37.3%), while the number of non-Muslim marriages declined by 4.7% from 40,854 in 2020 to 38,941 in 2021,” he said.

He added almost 8% of total marriages in 2021 were inter-ethnic marriages which increased by 11.7% from 14,448 marriages in 2020 to 16,142 last year. – Bernama, November 25, 2022.