Rise in inter-ethnic marriages and divorces in Singapore

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Singapore’s skyline. — Reuters photo

SINGAPORE: Inter-ethnic marriages continue to rise in Singapore with 21.5 per cent of the 27,971 marriages registered in the republic in 2016 being inter-ethnic unions, up nearly threefold from 7.6 per cent in 1990.

And the inter-ethnic marriage numbers appear to be significant among the Muslims too. Out of the 2,017 inter-ethnic Muslim marriages, the spouses came from the ‘Others’ a group for 29.4 per cent of the Malay grooms and 22.5 per cent of the Malay brides.

Marriages between Chinese grooms and brides of ‘Others’ ethnic group accounted for 48.6 per cent of the 4,007 inter-ethnic civil marriages in the community in 2016. On the contrary, only 7.9 per cent of the Chinese brides married husbands from the ‘Others’ group.

‘Others’ here refers to all ethnicity including Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians and Caucasians other than the ethnic group in consideration.

These were among the findings from the 2016 report on Statistics on Marriages and Divorces which was released July 18 by the Singapore Department of Statistics.

A total of 27,971 civil and Muslim marriages were registered in 2016 in Singapore, 1.2 per cent lower than the 28,322 marriages registered in the year before. Civil marriages refer to marriages registered under the Women’s Charter while Muslim marriages refer to marriages registered under the Administration of Muslim Law Act. Over the last decade, while marriage rates for the younger age groups below 30 years fell and concurrently, those aged 30 and above registered higher marriage rates.

The largest increase was observed for the 30-34 years age group, which is the peak age group for men to settle down. For women, marriage rates were the highest among those aged 25-29 years and 30-34 years in 2016.

In terms of Educational Differential at Marriage, the proportion of grooms marrying brides with either the same or higher educational qualification rose over the past decade.

In particular, the proportion of university educated grooms marrying brides with the same qualification increased from 73.5 per cent in 2006 to 81.9 per cent in 2016 for grooms in civil marriages, and from 53.6 per cent to 61.2 per cent for grooms in Muslim marriages.

As for brides in civil marriages, more than three-quarters of those with university degrees married grooms with the same qualification in 2016. The figure is marginally higher than a decade ago.

In contrast, the corresponding proportion of university educated Muslim brides who married a spouse with the same qualification fell from 46.2 per cent to 41.4 per cent over the same period.

Meanwhile, Muslim divorces rose in Singapore to 1,702 in 2016 from 1,667 in 2015.

Under the Administration of Muslim Law Act, divorces filed by the wife constituted almost 7 out of 10 Muslim divorces in 2016.

In 2016, ‘Infidelity or extra-marital affair’ was the top main cause of marriage breakdown cited by both male and female plaintiffs (24.8 and 19.4 per cent respectively).

The second top main reason for divorce was ‘Desertion’ for male plaintiffs (14.9 per cent), and ‘Financial problems’  for female plaintiffs (14.4 per cent).

Overall, a total of 7,614 marriages ended in a divorce or an annulment in 2016 in Singapore, up 1.2 per cent from the 7,522 marital dissolution in the previous year. There were 7.1 male divorcees for every thousand married resident males aged 20 years and over. The corresponding rate for females was 6.6.

Divorce rates tend to be higher among younger married persons than their older counterparts.

Nonetheless, the differences narrowed over the last decade as divorce rates generally dropped for younger married residents aged below 35 years, while the rates rose for those aged 35 years and over.

Marriage duration was generally shorter for both Muslim divorces than civil divorces. In 2016, the median marriage duration was 10.3 years for civil divorces and 8.7 years for Muslim divorces.

Couples who were married for 5-9 years accounted for the largest share (31.1 per cent) of civil divorces in 2016, followed by those who were married for 20 years or longer (21.2 per cent).

In contrast, among Muslim divorces in 2016, couples who were married for less than 5 years formed the largest share (29.3 per cent), followed by those who were married for 5-9 years (26.0 per cent).

Under the Women’s Charter, the wife instituted the majority of civil divorces in 2016 (62.4 per cent), although this proportion was lower than in 2006 (68.6 per cent). Among civil divorces in 2016, the top two main reasons for divorce were ‘Unreasonable behaviour’ (53.5 per cent) and having ‘lived apart or separated for three years or more’ (42.5 per cent).

‘Unreasonable behaviour’ of spouse was cited as the top main reason by female plaintiffs (58.6 per cent). — Bernama