The number of couples getting married in Türkiye witnessed a steady decline in 2023, decreasing to 565,435, according to a Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) report Thursday. A similar trend was observed in divorce cases, which decreased to 171,881.

Compared to 2022, the number of couples married last year decreased by 1.82%, with a crude marriage rate of 6.63 per thousand. The number of divorces also decreased by 5.79% compared to the previous year, with a crude divorce rate of 2.01 per thousand.

The data also revealed an increase in the age at first marriage for both genders. The average age at first marriage was 28.3 for men and 25.7 for women in 2023, with an average age difference of 2.6 years between spouses.

Statistics show that 33.4% of divorces occur within the first five years of marriage, while 21.7% occur between the sixth and 10th years.

In terms of provinıcial variations, the highest crude marriage rate was recorded in Kilis with 8.09 per thousand, followed by Aksaray with 7.81 per thousand and Gaziantep with 7.57 per thousand. On the other hand, the provinces with the lowest crude marriage rates were Gümüşhane with 4.52 per thousand, Tunceli with 4.82 per thousand and Malatya with 4.98 per thousand.

Last year, the city with the highest crude divorce rate was Izmir, with 3.05 per thousand, followed by Antalya, with 2.94 per thousand, and Karaman, with 2.80 per thousand.

The province with the lowest crude divorce rate was recorded as Hakkari, with 0.36 per thousand, followed by Şırnak, with 0.44 per thousand and Muş, with 0.55 per thousand.

While the number of foreign brides was recorded as 31,029 in 2023, 5.5% of the total brides were foreigners. Considering their nationalities, Uzbek brides ranked first among foreign brides with 12%, followed by Syrian brides with 11.3% and Azerbaijani brides with 9.1%.

While the number of foreign grooms was 6,345 last year, this figure constituted 1.1% of the total number of grooms. When foreign grooms were examined according to their nationalities, Germans ranked first with 21.9%, followed by Syrians with 19.2% and Austrians with 5.1%.

As a result of finalized divorce cases, 171,881 couples were divorced in 2023, and 171,213 children were given into custody, mostly given to the mother. Accordingly, it was decided that 74.9% would be given to the mother and 25.1% to the father.