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90% cases involve Saudis married to Saudi women

Divorce cases in Saudi Arabia increased to more than 30,000 in 2012, at a rate of 82 per day, which translates to almost three divorce cases every hour, found a study prepared by the economic research unit at Al Eqtisadiah newspaper, said Arab News.

Quoting the study, the English language daily said, divorce rates in the kingdom are 2.5 cases for every 1,000 men above the age of 15 years. The country ranked second among GCC countries, following Bahrain where the rates are 2.7 cases for every 1,000 people.

The same study showed an upward trend in divorce cases in 2012 compared with 2010, when divorce cases amounted to 75 a day, it said.

It quoted data provided by the Ministry of Justice that showed 90 per cent of the divorce cases involved Saudis who were married to Saudi women, which translated to more than 27,000 cases.

Divorces between non-Saudis who married non-Saudi women ranked second, at 7 per cent. These totaled 2,174 divorce cases.

Third on the list came the category of Saudi men who married non-Saudi women, at 2 per cent with a total of 575 divorce cases.

Compared to GCC countries, Saudi Arabia came second on the list following Bahrain, and Oman ranked third where rates of divorce recorded 1.9 cases for every 1,000 men above the age of 15 years.

Qatar ranked fourth where the rates amounted to 1.2 divorce cases for every 1,000 men.

Divorce cases are calculated by comparing the number of men above the age of 15 years because this approach is the most accurate. Divorce cases can thus be counted compared to the total population.

In addition to that, divorce cases cannot be compared to the number of marriages in the same year, if one took into account that marriage was not held the same year. Therefore, divorce cases are calculated by comparing the number of divorce cases with the number of the male population above the age of 15 years in a country, Arab News said.