SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Fewer couples tied the knot in 2025, with Singapore recording its lowest number of marriages in nearly a decade, excluding the pandemic-hit year of 2020.
A total of 24,688 marriages were registered in 2025, a 6.2 per cent drop from 2024.
This marks the third year in a row of declining marriages since the post-pandemic high of 29,389 marriages in 2022.
These figures were released on July 10 in the latest report on family trends by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), which had for the first time also looked at the quality of marriages in Singapore.
Meanwhile, fewer couples ended their marriages. A total of 7,242 marriages ended in a divorce or an annulment in 2025, down by 1.9 per cent from the 7,382 marital dissolutions in 2024.
Couples who were married for five to nine years accounted for the largest share - 27.6 per cent - of divorces in 2025.
A separate survey by MSF of 3,000 respondents in 2025 showed that nearly 95 per cent reported being happily married, and about 88 per cent rarely or never considered ending their marriage.
In response to queries, the ministry said it did not track which year of marriage the respondents were in at the time, but said it will consider whether to study these aspects in future waves of the survey.
About 78 per cent of respondents said they frequently confided in their spouses, and close to 93 per cent felt their relationship was going well.
Only about 3.7 per cent of people said they were a little unhappy in their marriage, and 0.5 per cent said they were extremely unhappy.
MSF said it included measures of marital quality in its 2025 survey on families for the first time to deepen its understanding of how marriages are faring and provide insights that can help inform marriage and family programmes and policies.
The report also found that the number of civil marriages dropped from 21,144 in 2024 to 19,682 in 2025, accounting for close to 90 per cent of the decrease in the total number of marriages.
The number of Muslim marriages also fell in 2025, from 5,184 in 2024 to 5,006 in 2025.
For both civil and Muslim marriages, there was a larger drop in marriages involving grooms and brides aged 25 to 34 as compared with other age groups.
Couples who wedded more recently continued to show greater stability than those who did so earlier, the report found.
The cumulative proportion of resident marriages that dissolved before the 10th anniversary fell from 17 per cent for those that wed in 2005 to 13.5 per cent for the 2014 marriage cohort.
Data showed that marriages are most vulnerable between the fifth and 10th anniversary.
This points to the importance of providing timely support during the early years of marriage to help couples build a strong foundation for the future, MSF said in a statement on July 10.
The median age at which people first get married remained the same in 2024 and 2025, at 31.1 for grooms and 29.6 for brides.
The median age of first-time fathers and mothers increased slightly from 33.6 for fathers in 2024 to 33.8 in 2025, and from 31.9 for mothers in 2024 to 32.1 in 2025.
Among resident females in Singapore aged 40 to 49 who have ever been married, 40.5 per cent have two children, while 25.5 per cent have one child. About 16 per cent of them do not have any children.
Singapore Management University sociology professor Paulin Tay Straughan told The Straits Times the positive findings on marital quality align with Singapore’s view of marriage as a highly valued institution, with those who marry intending to stay together.
“Especially in societies where spouse selection is a private decision, as opposed to being match-made by family, by the time we decided to marry, most are certain they have found their life partner and companion, and they look forward to building their life together,” she said.
Principal research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of Policy Studies Mathew Mathews said the latest figures show that more recent marriage cohorts may be experiencing greater stability, based on cohort dissolution rates.
“This is broadly aligned with the marital quality finding that about 88 per cent of respondents rarely or never considered ending their marriage. However, figures on divorce ideation need to be interpreted carefully.”
“It is difficult to know how serious or persistent such thoughts were. For some respondents, the thought of divorce may have been fleeting or occurred during a moment of conflict, rather than reflecting a serious intention to end the marriage.”
One clear measure of lower marital quality would be regularly considering divorce, he said, and figures showed that only a small proportion did so.
The 6.2 per cent dip in marriages is a statistic to pay attention to, Straughan added.
“It tells us that, for whatever reasons, singles are finding it challenging to get married. While marriage and spouse selection are private decisions, we should try to find out if there are structural factors that contribute to this delay.
“For example, do young singles find themselves in a time crunch when it comes to social engagements and courtship? It alerts us to the importance of work-life balance, and how we must protect private time for leisure,” she said.
Mathews said whether the decline in marriages continues will depend on whether younger Singaporeans see marriage and family formation as both achievable and attractive.
“Many still see marriage as attractive but may not feel ready for it, and may wonder if the broader environment such as their work, housing, finances, caregiving support and social expectations is conducive to take the plunge.”
The new Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup comes at an opportune time, he said. The hope is that it will lead to greater clarity in workplace norms, housing transitions, gender expectations, and the pressures young adults face when thinking about marriage and parenthood. -- The straits Times/ANN
