The divorce rate broke a record in 2024, reaching its highest level in the Eurasian country since records began, while the marriage rate in general remains stable, according to the latest sociological data published by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), released just as the government of Turkey declared 2025 the ‘Year of the Family’ and announced incentives for families and children in order to encourage the birth rate.
According to the report issued by Turkey’s official statistical agency, more than 187,000 couples decided to divorce last year, which represents a notable increase compared to the 173,000 divorces that were recorded in 2023. If we take into account the crude divorce rate – that is, the number of divorces per 1,000 inhabitants per year – this reached 2.19 in 2024: a figure that represents the highest level since records have existed in the country.
As for the number of marriages that took place last year, it remained more or less stable, experiencing a slight increase from 567,011 in 2023 to 568,395 in 2024. The report also points out that one in three divorces (33.7%) occur within the first five years of marriage, while another 21.3% occur between the sixth and tenth year of marriage. Only 16.5% of divorces occur in marriages that have lasted more than 20 years.
Geographically, the province of Adıyaman in south-eastern Turkey registered last year the highest rate of marriages in the country, with a rate of 7.76 per thousand; in contrast, the highest rate of divorces was registered in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, which reached a rate of 3.29 per thousand. There has also been a progressive increase in recent decades in the average age at which couples get married: in 2001 it was 26 for men and 22.7 for women, but by 2024 it had risen to 28.3 for men and 25.8 for women.
In addition to the alarming divorce figures, the data presented by TÜİK also reveal interesting statistics about marriages with foreigners in Turkey. Thus, 1 in 5 foreign grooms who married in Turkey in 2024 were of Syrian origin (20.6%), followed almost equally by Germans (19.5%); among foreign brides, those of Syrian and Uzbek origin are tied (both representing 12.1%), followed by Moroccan (8.3%) and Azerbaijani (7.5%).
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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