Marriage and Divorce Statistics in Türkiye (TÜİK Data)

What do you see in a statistics table? Most of us see numbers. After years in the consulting room, I know each of them happened behind a door. "193,793 couples divorced" is really 193,793 versions of "could it have gone differently?"

Data source: All figures come from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) bulletin "Evlenme ve Boşanma İstatistikleri, 2025" (Marriage and Divorce Statistics, 2025), published 24 February 2026. The numbers describe the 2025 calendar year. Original data: TÜİK data portal.

How Many Couples Marry and Divorce in Türkiye?

Per TÜİK's 2025 data, marriages fell from 569,983 in 2024 to 552,237 in 2025, while divorces rose from 188,963 to 193,793. But these figures do not describe the same people: couples who divorced in 2025 married years earlier. Concluding "marriage is collapsing" from them is a leap the data does not support.

What Do the "Crude" Rates Mean?

In 2025 the crude marriage rate was 6.43 per thousand and the crude divorce rate 2.26 per thousand — meaning 2.26 divorces per 1,000 people, not per 1,000 married couples. The denominator includes children, never-married adults and widowed people: millions carrying no divorce "risk" at all. TÜİK's 2025 rate was its highest since 2001 — accurate, though the series is a gradual climb, not a rupture.

What Is the Average Age at First Marriage?

In 2025 it was 28.5 for men and 26.0 for women. Across TÜİK's 2001-2025 series it rose for both sexes: in 2001 it was 26.0 for men and 22.7 for women. Strikingly, women's average age today equals where men's stood in 2001. Is marrying later good or bad? The data cannot say — it does not recognise those categories.

When Do Divorces Happen?

The bulletin's most meaningful finding: of divorces in 2025, 34.0% occurred within the first 5 years of marriage and 20.3% between years 6 and 10. More than half fall within the first decade, and the 2024 bulletin showed a similar pattern — a stable regularity, not a blip.

Clinically, several forces converge early: idealisation dissolving as the imagined partner meets the real one; no shared conflict language yet, so two people collide using the styles they learned in childhood; and often a first child. Yet this is exactly when couples are least willing to seek help.

Why Do Provinces Differ So Much?

In 2025 the highest crude divorce rate was 3.28 per thousand in İzmir, then Antalya (3.21) and Denizli (3.14); the lowest was 0.51 in Hakkari, then Şırnak (0.52) and Bitlis (0.63). The highest crude marriage rate was 7.76 in Gaziantep, the lowest 4.18 in Tunceli. Are marriages in İzmir six times more fragile? The data does not say that. A low rate may mean happy marriages — or marriages that cannot be left. Statistics count a legal event; they do not measure happiness.

Is It True That One in Three Marriages Ends in Divorce?

No. Someone divides one year's divorces (193,793) by the same year's marriages (552,237), gets roughly 35%, and writes the headline. The method is broken: numerator and denominator describe different cohorts. Answering the question honestly requires cohort analysis — following couples married in a given year across decades. A single annual bulletin cannot do it.

What the Data Does Not Say

It does not say how many marriages are happy, how many couples stayed because they could not afford to leave, or why divorce rose. Correlation is not causation. Figures are also revised: TÜİK's 2024 bulletin reported 568,395 marriages and 187,343 divorces for 2024, which the 2025 bulletin restated as 569,983 and 188,963 as late records arrived. So comparing numbers across bulletins can mislead — the comparison above takes both years from the same one.

The Quiet Side: Children

In 2025, 191,371 children were placed in custody following finalised divorces — 74.6% with mothers, 25.4% with fathers. The research literature broadly suggests what matters most is not divorce itself but how it is conducted: conflict sustained in front of the child, or pressure to take sides. A high-conflict marriage that continues can be harder on a child than a well-handled separation. See Psychological Recovery After Divorce.

Where Does Couples Therapy Fit?

Let me not overclaim, since this is my profession. Couples therapy will not move national statistics. Its claim is more modest: helping a couple author their own story consciously. The goal is not saving every marriage at any cost — some should end, and good therapy makes those separations less destructive rather than obstructing them. Both "we stay" and "we separate" are successes if chosen. See Does Couples Therapy Really Work?

What Do These Numbers Say About Your Marriage?

Nothing. Statistics describe populations, not individuals. A rate of 2.26 per thousand carries zero information about your relationship, just as average rainfall cannot tell you whether it will rain on your street tomorrow. Some treat it as fate; others as a shield that renders real pain invisible. See Should I Get Divorced? and The Right Questions in Premarital Counselling.

Marriage and Couples Counselling at Alfi

No statistic can measure two people deciding to turn back toward each other. That decision enters no table — and is often the only thing that changes everything. With Expert Psychologist Yasemin KAYA at our Maltepe office, we work with evidence-based approaches, in person and online. Explore Marriage & Couples Counselling or book an appointment.