The latest data from Stats SA on marriages and divorces in the country shows that South Africans are losing interest in getting hitched—while divorces are on the rise.
According to Stats SA, South Africa recorded 102,373 registered marriages and unions in 2024—the latest year available—a 2.9% drop from 2023.
2023’s numbers were an 11.4% decline from 2022—the year that numbers started normalising after unions took a dent from the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.
Notably, marriages and unions in South Africa have shown a long-term decline, with each year since 2016 seeing a drop.
2020 and 2021 data were anomalous due to the global pandemic, but even with the significant dip in those years, numbers have never recovered to anywhere near 2019’s levels (134,157 unions recorded).
Marriages declined at an annual rate of 1.3% from 2015 to 2019, followed by an annual increase of 6.5% from 2021 to 2022.
While Stats SA said this indicates a recovery in marriage numbers, from 2022 to 2024, marriages declined by 4.6% annually.
The data shows that civil marriages account for the most types of unions in the country, totalling 97,510 in 2024.
In addition, 2,634 customary marriages and 2,229 civil unions were registered that year.
However, in line with the broader trend, there were declines across all types of marriages between 2023 and 2024, with civil marriages, customary marriages, and civil unions dropping by 1.8%, 25.5%, and 3.0%, respectively.
The median ages of bridegrooms and brides for civil marriages were 39 years and 35 years, respectively. The vast majority of bridegrooms and brides got married for the first time.
Divorces on the rise
In contrast to marriages, the number of divorces is rising.
In 2024, Stats SA recorded 24,202 completed divorce forms, indicating an increase of 8.9% from the 22,230 divorces processed in 2023.
Similar to marriage data, divorce rates were much lower in 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of the pandemic and lockdowns.
However, contrary to marriage data, the 2024 divorce numbers are now higher than the last “normal” data set recorded in 2019, when 23,710 divorces were recorded.
The number of divorces was also on the rise pre-COVID, increasing between 2015 and 2017 before flattening out in 2018 and 2019.
The data also reflects another worrying trend: more than 40% of divorces in 2024 were from marriages that lasted fewer than 10 years.
The 2024 data show that more wives (57.2%) than husbands (33.0%) initiate divorce proceedings, and that only 4.6% of divorces were initiated by both the husband and the wife.
The median age at the time of divorce in 2024 was 46 years for males and 42 years for females, indicating that, in general, divorced males were older than divorced females, with a difference of about 4 years.
