KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 — The number of marriages in Malaysia decreased last year, compared with 2018, new data released today by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) has revealed.

DOSM, on its website and Twitter page, further disclosed that divorce rates went up.

Fewer marriages in 2019

The body, which is the official source of statistics for Malaysia, said the number of marriages here decreased by 1.2 per cent, from 206,352 marriages in 2018 to 203,821 in 2019.

The stats in 2019 yielded a "crude marriage rate (CMR)” of 6.3 — which means that for every one thousand people, 6.3 individuals are getting married.

In contrast, the CMR in 2018 was 6.4.

DOSM further highlighted that Muslim marriages declined by 1.5 per cent, from 150,098 (7.6 CMR) in 2018, to 147,847 (7.4 CMR) in 2019.

Meanwhile, non-Muslim marriages declined by 0.5 per cent, from 56,254 (4.5 CMR) in 2018, to 55,974 (4.4 CMR) in 2019.

Women waiting longer before getting married

Meanwhile, as a whole, the median age for brides increased from 26 years in 2018, to 27 years in 2019.

The median age for grooms remained the same for both periods, at 28 years of age.

In 2019, Muslim men were getting married at a median age of 27, while Muslim women were doing so at a median age of 26.

The median age in the same year for non-Muslim grooms and non-Muslim brides was was 30 and 28 respectively.

Men had a higher incidence of marriage than women in 2019, with 50.1 of them getting married per 1,000 unmarried males aged 18 and over.

Women were getting married at a rate of 46.2 per 1,000 unmarried females aged 16 and over.

Higher number of divorces in 2019

The number of divorces increased by 12 per cent from 50,862 in 2018 to 56,975 in 2019. The crude divorce rate (CDR) increased from 1.6 per 1,000 people in 2018, to 1.8 per 1,000 people in 2019.

The number of Muslim divorces recorded in 2019 was 45,502, an increase of 13 per cent as compared to the 40,269 divorces in 2018.

CDR increased from 2.0 (2018) to 2.3 (2019) per thousand Muslim population.

Non-Muslim divorces increased 8.3 per cent from 10,593 (0.8 CDR) in 2018 to 11,473 (0.9 CDR) in 2019.