Qatar Statistics Authority releases 2011 Marriages and Divorces Annual Bulletin of Vital Statistics

Such phenomena establishes family properties and society trends on issues associated with population growth in the State of Qatar. Statistics of this Bulletin are based on data submitted monthly by the Supreme Judiciary Council.

The first part of this Bulletin discusses marriages. It includes indicators, such as Median Age at First Marriage, and remarriage contracts that show marriage characteristics in the Qatari society.

The second section of this Bulletin focuses on the issue of divorce in the Qatari society. It analyzes relevant data, including divorce certificates by type (revocable, khul "wife-initiated divorce", minor and major irrevocable divorce), husband and wife age group, marriage duration, kinship, and age groups.

Key indicators:

- Marriage contracts were 1898 (57.6%) for Qatari, down 1.3% compared with 2010; while 1395 (42.4%) for non-Qatari, up 1.3% compared to 2010. Divorce certificates were 754 (68.1%) for Qatari, down 1.9% compared with 2010; whereas 354 (31.9%) for non-Qatari, up 1.9% compared to 2010.

- Median age at first marriage was 26.7 for Qatari males, 24.1 for Qatari females, 29.6 for non-Qatari males, while 26.5 for non-Qatari females. These rates are fixed over the last ten years for Qatari and non-Qatari.

- The number of marriage contracts for Qatari males marrying for the first time reached 1442 (76.5%), 1164 (83.4%) for non-Qatari males, 1621 (84.2%) for Qatari females and 1217 (89%) for non-Qatari females; while the remarriage contracts for Qatari males reached 456 (24%), 231 (16.6%) for non-Qatari males, 304 (15.8%) for Qatari females and 151 (11%) for non-Qatari females.

- Divorce occurred before the marriage has been consummated made up 21% of the total.

- In terms of divorced women's number of children according to the wife age group, it was largest in 39-35 age group (20.3% of the total number of children), 44-40 age group (20%), and then 30-34 age group (18.6%).

- Women's reproductive status was one of the factors affecting the divorce, as wives who did not give birth were more vulnerable to divorce (67.6% of total divorced women), relative to those who did; while the proportion of divorced women that gave birth to six or more children accounted for 3.1% of total divorced women.

- The number of children of Qatari divorced women represented 684 (70.0% of total divorced women's children), of which non-Qatari fathers' children constituted 5.4%.

- The number of children of non-Qatari divorced women represented 289 (30% of total divorced women's children), of which Qatari fathers' children constituted 24.6%.