Daily average of marriages doubles that of divorces in Ecuador

While 158 people, on average per day, got married in 2021 in Ecuador, the average number of divorces per day was 62. Marriage records are twice as many as breakups. It is interesting to remember this data on February 14, 2023, which is Valentine’s Day.

Marriages rose 42.6% between 2020 and 2021 in Ecuador, according to INEC.

In accordance with art. 81 of the Civil Code, marriage is a solemn contract by which a man and a woman unite in order to live together, procreate and help each other.

Marriage figures

During 2021, the last year that the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) has records, a total of 56,921 people signed this contract, while 22,488 dissolved the marriage bond. 

This means that marriages increased 42.6% compared to 2020, an unusual year of pandemic, in which marriages plummeted: 38,938. 

The marriage rate per 10,000 inhabitants confirms this trend, going from 22.4 marriages in 2020 to 32.1 one year later. On the other hand, the divorce rate accelerated more: from 8.3 to 12.7 per 10,000.

Marriages do not grow at the same rate

When analyzing the 2010-2021 trend line, it is observed that the number of marriages in 2021 returned to the level of 2019, pre-pandemic. 

But in 2021 they did not reach the numbers that were maintained between 2014 and 2018, which exceeded 57,000 annually. Worse still those that were registered in 2010 and 2011, years in which they exceeded 70,000. 

This reveals that while people continue to get married, the growth is slower.

Another no less interesting fact is that marriages, on average, last 15.7 years. In these cases are those who married when they were in their mid-twenties and ended their life as a couple at 40 years of age.

Lower divorce rate

Divorces registered a rise of 54.4%, from 2020 to 2021, going from 14,568 to 22,488, that is, they grew more than formal unions. However, this last figure is the lowest from 2014 to 2019, before the health crisis (see table).

Likewise, the divorce rate per 10,000 inhabitants is the lowest since 2011, without counting 2020, which is a year marked by confinement.

In Ecuador, the main cause of divorce is given by mutual consent in the courts or notaries, followed by justified abandonment.