Data on marriages and divorces taking place in the country over the years, from the at the Ministry of Justice, shows that marriages between Kuwaiti men and non-Kuwaiti women within the past 10 years reached 23,251, despite 2,408 of them ending up in divorce within the first year.
But divorces in the country are in general on a downward trend, with the rate of divorcee in all marriages consummated among Kuwaitis dropping by 13.8 percent over the ten-year period, while the divorce rate between Kuwaiti men and their non- Kuwaiti wives declined by 3.8 percent.
Other figures show that there has been a steady increase in the number of Kuwaiti men marrying non-Kuwaiti women, while there has been a corresponding decrease in Kuwait men marrying their compatriots during the last couple of years.
The number of marriages between Kuwaiti men and women in 2014 was 9,514 compared to 2,276 marriages between Kuwaiti men and non-Kuwaiti women. In 2015, the total number of marriages between Kuwaiti men and women was 9,378 compared to 2,306 marriages between Kuwaiti men and non-Kuwaiti women, while in 2016, it was 8,846 compared to 2,316 marriages between Kuwaiti men and non-Kuwaiti women.
The steady decline in the number of marriages between Kuwaiti men and women and the increase in marriages between Kuwaiti men and non-Kuwaiti women is cause for social concern. Authorities concerned with demographic imbalance in the country would be well-advised to ask why there has been a steady decline in the number of Kuwaiti men wanting to marry Kuwaiti women, and how this phenomena can be reversed.
