Introduction
Based on the mission of the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) to provide updated, value added, accurate, comprehensible, and credible statistical products and services, that meets the international, regional and local organizations requirements and the the Saudi Vision 2030 requirements; in accordance with the best international standards and practices, and in order to achieve GASTAt’s vision to be the most distinguished and innovative statistical reference to support economic and social development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
GASTAT is pleased to publish its bulltin of the Marriage and Divorce Survey in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the year 2020, as the family is considered the base in building society to boost sustainable development plans in the kingdom. The Kingdom’s attention to supporting families and providing all welfare and social services programs that guarantee their stability to enable them and develop their capabilities to ensure their contribution and enable them to fully perform their developmental role to achieve the basic pillars of the Kingdom’s vision 2030.
GASTAT presents in this bulletin the levels and trends of marriage and divorce rates, and the variance of these rates according to the administrative areas, sex and nationality via the main indicators of marriage and divorces statistics. GASTAT seeks that these results provids the requirments of researchers, planners and whome concern about this bulletin.
GASTAT would like to express its gratitude to the partners from the concerned authorities for their cooperation in completion of this bulletin. GASTAT welcomes everyone to provide their suggestions and notes about this bulletin to info@stats.gov.sa, which will help in improving the bulletin content, and develop upcoming releases.
Definitions and General Concepts
Data sources of Marriage and Divorce Bulletin
The statistical data of Marriage and divorce bulletin relay on two main sources:
- External source:
Which is administrative data from marriage contracts and divorce deeds from the related governmental entities that provide GASTAT with it, Then, GASTAT calculates its indicators and issue them in a bulletin of marriage and divorce.
- Internal source:
Which includes statistics from population estimates and projections that GASTAT conducts annually.
First source: Administrative data:
Data and information that are registered in Ministry of Justice, which are resulted from registration operations and the official electronic documentation followed in this entity. The Ministry of Justice provides GASTAT with the registered data frequently, as this entity is a major source of data.
Second source: Population estimates
Population estimates by the size and their distribution by age, sex and administrative area were used.
The following table demonstrates data type provided by each of the sources of marriage and divorce bulletin
|
Data source |
Entity | Data and Indicators |
| Administrative Area | Ministry of Justice | Marriage contracts and Divorce deeds |
| Population Estimates | GASTAT | Population numbers & characteristics |
Objectives
- Support decision makers, policies providers, researchers and whom concerned about updated and comprehensible statistics related to marriage and divorces in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- Found a reliable database to provide those interested and specialists in the field of marriage and divorce statistics (locally, regionally and internationally).
- Use this data for local, regional and international comparison purposes.
Terms and concepts related to marriage and divorce statistics
- Crude marriage rate: Crude marriage rate is defined in such area and such a period of time as the number of marriage (not a number of married male and female) per 1000 of population in the reference time and area. The crude marriage rate is used in areas where the necessary data are unavailable to calculate more revised rates, and it is used in this bulletin to compare its values with the corresponding values of more revised marriage measures, such as the general marriage rate.
- General marriage rate: General marriage rate is defined in such area and such a period of time as a number of marriage (not a number of married male and female) per 1000 of population who are 15-year-old and older in the reference time and area.
- Crude Divorce Rate: The crude divorce rate is defined in such area and such a period of time as a number of divorces (not a number of divorced male and female) per 1000 of population in the reference time and area. The crude divorce rate is used in areas where the necessary data are unavailable to calculate more revised rates, and it is used in this publication to compare its values with the corresponding values of more revised divorce measures, such as the general divorce rate.
- General Divorce rate: The general divorce rate is defined in such area and such a period of time as a number of divorces (not a number of divorced male and female) per 1000 of population who are 15-year-old and older in the reference time and area.
Main Indicators
|
Indicators |
Calculation Formula |
| Crude Marriage Rate for population | = (No# marriage contracts / estimate of mid-year population) *1000 |
| Crude Marriage Rate for Saudi population | = (No# Saudi marriage contracts / estimate of mid-year Saudi population) *1000 |
| General Marriage Rate for population | = (No# marriage contracts / estimate of mid-year population for the age group, 15-year-old and older) *1000 |
| General Marriage Rate for Saudi population | = (No# Saudi marriage contracts / estimate of mid-year Saudi population for the age group, 15-year-old and older) *1000 |
| Crude Divorce Rate for population | = (No# divorce deeds / estimate of mid-year population) *1000 |
| Crude Divorce Rate for Saudi population | = (No# Saudi divorce deeds / estimate of mid-year Saudi population) *1000 |
| General Divorce Rate for population | = (No# divorce deeds / estimate of mid-year population for the age group, 15-year-old and older) *1000 |
| General Divorce Rate for Saudi population | = (No# Saudi divorce deeds / estimate of mid-year Saudi population for the age group, 15-year-old and older) *1000 |
Coverage
- Spatial Coverage: Marriage and divorce statistics covers the data related to Saudi population in the all 13 administrative areas in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which covers (Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Qassim, Eastern Region, Asir, Tabuk, Hail, Northern Borders, Jazan, Najran, Al-Baha and Al-Jouf( ,and also by sex, while the data of the administrative records of marriage and divorce statistics include the Saudi population, whose data are documented in the records of the Ministry of Justice.
- Temporal Coverage: In terms of time reference, data of marriage and divorces of Saudi population statistics refer to pervious year of issuing the bulletin of marriage and divorce statistics.
Preparation and revision of results
After revising the collected data from their different sources, all calculation and results extraction processes have been done, and outputs have been stored and uploaded to the database to be reviewed and processed by specialists in Population and Vital Statistics Department through modern technologies and software designed for revision and auditing purposes.
Data Publication
First: Preparation of Results Designed for Publishing
During this stage, GASTAT organized and reviewed the data that contained in the bulletin. Then the publication tables, figures of data, indicators, metadata, and methodology were prepared exactly as they are shown in this bulletin.
Second: Preparation of Media Kit and Announcement of Publication Date:
The publication date of the bulletin is already set up by GASTAT on its official website at the beginning of the Calendar Year. During this period, the Authority is preparing the media kits to announce the date of releasing the bulletin through media in addition to its various platforms in social networking sites. The bulletin will be published firstly on GASTAT’s official website in different formats, such as open data in Excel format to be easily reached for all clients and those who are interested in Marriage and Divorce statistics in general. It will be uploaded on the website’s statistics library as well.
Third: Communication with clients and providing them with the bulletin’s results
One of GASTAT’s objectives is to better meet its clients' needs, so it immediately provides them with the bulletin’s results once the Marriage and Divorce Bulletin is published. It also receives questions and inquiries of the clients about the Bulletin and its results through various communication channels, such as:
- GASTAT’s official website www.stats.gov.sa
- GASTAT’s official e-mail address info@stats.gov.sa
- Client Support’s e-mail address cs@stats.gov.sa
- Official visits to GASTAT’s official head office in Riyadh or one of its branches in Saudi Arabia.
- Official letters.
- Statistical help-line (920020081)
Applied quality procedures
Marriage and Divorce statistics are subject to many technical quality procedures to guarantee the quality of data resulted from this survey. These procedures include:
- Review the administrative data and verify their comprehensiveness. Then, communicate with the data providers when needed to provide clarifications on the data being observed.
- Verify the outputs logic by comparing them with the historical data and conform them with the demographic and social data for the Saudi population in the Kingdom.
- Commit to publish results according to predetermined publication dates.
Beneficiaries and benefits
All governmental and private sectors that are associated with the marriage and divorce statistcs in saudi Arabia are benifiting from this Bulletin. Family Affir Council, National Observatory of Women, Shura Council and other centers that are related to women affairs are the most beneficiaries; in addition to international and regional organizations, researchers and planners who are interested in marriage and divorce, Where data and indicators of marriage and divorce are among the most important statistical products, which contribute to supporting decision-making in this area..