New data from the Kurdistan Region Judicial Council shows Sulaimani province leading in both marriages and divorces, with divorce rates continuing to climb region-wide over the past decade. The comprehensive statistics, released on March 18, 2025, reveal that divorce rates in Kurdistan Region have jumped from 18% of marriages in 2014 to 24% in 2024, signaling shifts in family stability across the region.

Sulaimani province, with its nearly 2.5 million residents, recorded 21,228 marriages and 6,473 divorces in 2024 alone. When adjusted for population, this translates to 8.5 marriages and 2.6 divorces per 1,000 residents – the highest rate in the region. While marriages in Sulaimani remain robust, the divorce rate raises concerns, representing 52% of all divorces across Kurdistan Region despite housing only about 38% of the region’s population.

In contrast, Erbil province (population about 2.3 million) registered 17,591 marriages and 3,878 divorces, or approximately 7.6 marriages and 1.7 divorces per 1,000 residents. Duhok province (population 1.7 million) shows markedly lower dissolution rates with 12,199 marriages and only 2,033 divorces, representing 7.2 marriages but just 1.2 divorces per 1,000 residents.

The decade-long trend shows a concerning pattern. Most significantly, the proportion of marriages ending in divorce has steadily increased year by year, from 18% in 2014 to 24% by 2024. The Judicial Council data indicates that while 2022 saw a peak in marriages with 55,896 across the region, 2023 marked the highest year for divorces with 14,312 cases. Throughout the 11-year period, courts processed a total of 526,690 marriages against 108,428 divorces – translating to an average of 27 divorces every day.

In Erbil province, the Judicial Council identified the leading causes of divorce as incompatibility (14%), infidelity (9%), and lack of separate housing (8.4%). This third factor specifically refers to couples being unable to establish households separate from the husband’s parents’ home – a traditional living arrangement that increasingly causes marital strain as younger generations seek more independence.

The 11-year cumulative data further highlights provincial disparities. Since 2014, approximately 187,475 marriages were recorded in Sulaimani, compared to 184,466 in Erbil and 125,311 in Duhok. During the same period, courts processed about 49,253 divorces in Sulaimani, 41,737 in Erbil, and significantly fewer – 17,428 – in Duhok.

These figures translate to notably different divorce-to-marriage ratios across the decade: 30.5% in Sulaimani, 22% in Erbil, and 16.7% in Duhok, suggesting substantial social and cultural variations across the three provinces.

The data also reveals fluctuations in marriage rates, with 2016 recording the lowest number at just 31,183 marriages region-wide, before climbing to the 2022 peak. Meanwhile, divorce rates showed a more consistent upward trajectory throughout the decade, culminating in the 2023 high-water mark before slightly declining in 2024 in Erbil and Duhok – though continuing to rise in Sulaimani.

Placing these trends in a regional context, Kurdistan Region occupies a unique position within the broader Middle East. While Kurdistan’s overall marriage rate of 7.8 per 1,000 population exceeds regional neighbors like Turkey (5.9) and the GCC countries (4.9), and is comparable to Iran (7.5) and Jordan (6.9), its divorce patterns show significant variation. The region’s average divorce-to-marriage ratio of 24% remains lower than countries like Kuwait (48%) and Iran (40%), but Sulaimani province’s elevated ratio of 30.5% approaches these higher regional benchmarks. Meanwhile, Duhok’s 16.7% ratio represents one of the lowest divorce rates in the Middle East, highlighting the stark internal differences within Kurdistan itself. These comparative figures suggest Kurdistan is experiencing social transformations similar to its neighbors, albeit with pronounced provincial variations reflecting differing cultural and economic circumstances.

These statistics prompt important questions about the underlying social, economic, and cultural factors influencing family stability across Kurdistan Region, particularly why Sulaimani province continues to experience rising divorce rates while other provinces show signs of stabilization.