Marriages and Divorces, 2004
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Marriages and divorces, 2004 Report No. 03-07-01 (2004) i Published by Statistics South Africa, Private Bag X44, Pretoria 0001 © Statistics South Africa, 2006 Users may apply or process this data, provided Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) is acknowledged as the original source of the data; that it is specified that the application and/or analysis is the result of the user's independent processing of the data; and that neither the basic data nor any reprocessed version or application thereof may be sold or offered for sale in any form whatsoever without prior permission from Stats SA. Stats SA Library Cataloguing-in-Publication (CIP) Data Marriages and divorces, 2004 / Statistics South Africa. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa, 2006 xxvi, 157p. [Report No. 03-07-01(2004)] Annually ISBN 0-621-35270-5 Title continues in English only 1. Vital Statistics I. Statistics South Africa II. Series (LCSH 16) A complete set of Stats SA publications is available at Stats SA Library and the following libraries: National Library of South Africa, Pretoria Division Eastern Cape Library Services, King William's Town National Library of South Africa, Cape Town Division Central Regional Library, Limpopo Library of Parliament, Cape Town Central Reference Library, Nelspruit Bloemfontein Public Library Central Reference Collection, Kimberley Natal Society Library, Pietermaritzburg Central Reference Library, Mmabatho Johannesburg Public Library This report is available on the Stats SA website: www.statssa.gov.za Copies are available from: Printing and Distribution, Statistics South Africa Tel: (012) 310 8619/8161 Fax: (012) 321 7381 Email: [email protected] ii PREFACE 1. This report contains statistics on marriages contracted and divorces Department of Home Affairs, whilst data on divorces are obtained from the granted in South Africa during 2004. registrars of the various divisions of the Supreme Court. 2. The 2004 report portrays statistics on marriages recognised by the 4. As from 1991 the Department of Home Affairs does not collect information Marriage Act, 1961 (Act No. 25 of 1961) and recorded by the civil on population group of couples getting married. For divorces, however, registration system. Marriages not recognised by the Marriage Act have information on population group is available. not been included. The Marriage Act, 1961 (Act No. 25 of 1961), made provision for the solemnisation of marriages according to ‘Christian, 5. As from 1994 information on divorces for all population groups is collected. Jewish or Mohammedan rites or rites of any Indian religion’, in fact only Previously, only information on divorces for coloureds, Indians/Asians and marriages concluded according to Christian and Jewish or Hebrew rites whites was collected. had been recognised. In the case of other religions whose marriage ceremony had not yet been approved at the time, marriages concluded 6. Divorces where the population group of the husband and wife differs, or are through the rites of these religions, were not recognised. The summary unspecified, form part of the contents of the report and are no longer shown and explanatory notes of this report discuss in detail the steps that are as a table in the summary. being taken to align the older (based on the Marriages Act, 1961 (Act No. 25 of 1961) legislation with the new Constitution of South Africa. 7. Should your copy of this publication have any unacceptable printing or binding errors, the publication will be exchanged free of charge on receipt of 3. In the case of marriages, the statistical information is obtained from the the unsatisfactory copy. Please return it to the STATS SA's head office, at Private Bag X44, Pretoria, 0001 or 170 Andries Street, Pretoria. STATISTICIAN-GENERAL: STATISTICS SOUTH AFRICA PRETORIA 2006 iii Table TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Summary vii Summary tables xi Graphs xvii Explanatory notes xxiv 1 MARRIAGES 1.1 Marriages by denomination of officiating person, province and municipality 1.1.1 Western Cape 1 1.1.2 Eastern Cape 2 1.1.3 Northern Cape 3 1.1.4 Free State 4 1.1.5 KwaZulu-Natal 5 1.1.6 North West 6 1.1.7 Gauteng 7 1.1.8 Mpumalanga 8 1.1.9 Limpopo 9 1.2 Relative marital status at the time of marriage by way of solemnisation 10 1.3 Relative ages of bridegroom and bride 11 1.4 Marital status at the time of marriage by single ages of bridegrooms and brides 12 1.5 Relative marital status at the time of marriage by age of bridegroom 15 1.6 Relative marital status at the time of marriage by age of bride 16 1.7 Age difference of bridegroom and bride by marital status at the time of marriage 17 STATS SA REPORT NO. 03-07-01(2004) iv Table TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 2 DIVORCES 2.1 Historical tables of divorces by population group 2.1.1 African 21 2.1.2 Coloured 22 2.1.3 Indian/Asian 23 2.1.4 White 24 2.2 Month of divorce by population group and province 25 2.3 Way of solemnisation by population group, province and municipality 2.3.1 Western Cape 28 2.3.2 Eastern Cape 30 2.3.3 Northern Cape 34 2.3.4 Free State 36 2.3.5 KwaZulu-Natal 38 2.3.6 North West 42 2.3.7 Gauteng 44 2.3.8 Mpumalanga 46 2.3.9 Limpopo 48 2.4 Relative marital status at the time of marriage by way of solemnisation and population group 2.4.1 African 52 2.4.2 Coloured 53 2.4.3 Indian/Asian 54 2.4.4 White 55 2.4.5 Mixed 56 2.4.6 Unspecified 57 2.5 Relative ages of plaintiff and defendant by population group 2.5.1 African 58 2.5.2 Coloured 60 2.5.3 Indian/Asian 62 2.5.4 White 64 2.5.5 Mixed 66 2.5.6 Unspecified 68 STATS SA REPORT NO. 03-07-01(2004) v Table TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 2.6 Age difference between husband and wife by duration of marriage and population group 2.6.1 African 70 2.6.2 Coloured 72 2.6.3 Indian/Asian 74 2.6.4 White 76 2.6.5 Mixed 78 2.6.6 Unspecified 80 2.7 Way of solemnisation by duration of marriage and population group 82 2.8 Duration of marriage by age of husband and population group 2.8.1 African 83 2.8.2 Coloured 85 2.8.3 Indian/Asian 87 2.8.4 White 89 2.8.5 Mixed 91 2.8.6 Unspecified 93 2.9 Duration of marriage by age of wife and population group 2.9.1 African 95 2.9.2 Coloured 97 2.9.3 Indian/Asian 99 2.9.4 White 101 2.9.5 Mixed 103 2.9.6 Unspecified 105 2.10 Number of times married by age of husband and population group 2.10.1 African 107 2.10.2 Coloured 108 2.10.3 Indian/Asian 109 2.10.4 White 110 2.10.5 Mixed 111 2.10.6 Unspecified 112 STATS SA REPORT NO. 03-07-01(2004) vi Table TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 2.11 Number of times married by age of wife and population group 2.11.1 African 113 2.11.2 Coloured 114 2.11.3 Indian/Asian 115 2.11.4 White 116 2.11.5 Mixed 117 2.11.6 Unspecified 118 2.12 Occupation of husband at time of divorce by duration of marriage and population group 2.12.1 African 119 2.12.2 Coloured 120 2.12.3 Indian/Asian 121 2.12.4 White 122 2.12.5 Mixed 123 2.12.6 Unspecified 124 2.13 Occupation of wife at time of divorce by duration of marriage and population group 2.13.1 African 125 2.13.2 Coloured 126 2.13.3 Indian/Asian 127 2.13.4 White 128 2.13.5 Mixed 129 2.13.6 Unspecified 130 2.14 Occupation of husband and wife at time of divorce by population group 131 2.15 Duration of marriage by number of minor children involved and population group 2.15.1 African 133 2.15.2 Coloured 135 2.15.3 Indian/Asian 137 2.15.4 White 139 2.15.5 Mixed 141 2.15.6 Unspecified 143 Previous Stats SA reports 145 STATS SA REPORT NO. 03-07-01(2004) vii SUMMARY Introduction to the 2003 figure of 178 689. Table B (page xii) shows the distribution of marriages by month of solemnisation and province. In 2004, the highest The marriage and divorce statistics covered in this report are data collected number of marriages was observed in December 2004 (23 523). It is further through the civil registration system and the designated courts (twelve observed that this pattern remains consistent for all the provinces. supreme courts), respectively. These exclude marriages solemnised under customary and certain religious rites during this time. Past legislation on the The distribution of recorded marriages by the five leading magisterial districts registration of marriages and divorces in South Africa resulted in customary in each province, as shown in Table C (page xiii), indicates that some and certain religious marriages and divorces being excluded from the civil municipalities have a far higher number of marriages registered than others. registration system. Marriages solemnised under religious or customary rites The high number of registered marriages in some municipalities can probably that did not follow the prescribed marriage ceremony in the previous be attributed to the fact that most of them are more populated and more Marriages Act, 1961 (Act No.