New Statistics in Iran: Decrease in Marriage and Increase in 'Single-Person Families'

According to a manager from the Civil Registration Organization, with the emergence of 'new phenomena' in contemporary Iranian families, the marriage rate in 2015 decreased by 6.5% compared to the previous year, and the formation of what is termed 'single-person families' has increased compared to the past. Ali Akbar Mahzoon, the director general of information, statistics, and immigration at the Civil Registration Organization, stated in an interview with Mehr News Agency on Tuesday, October 19, that 'from 2011 to 2014, we faced a decline in marriage statistics in the country; last year, about 724,000 marriages were registered, which is a 6.5% decrease compared to the previous year.' According to Mr. Mahzoon, the latest census from the Statistical Center shows that a transformation in family type and population structure has occurred. Based on the statistics from this civil registration official, 61% of Iranian families live in nuclear families (husband, wife, and child), 14.6% in couple families (only husband and wife), and 3.84% in extended families (multiple generations together). Mahzoon emphasized that several emerging phenomena are forming in families, stating, 'The single-person family is on the rise, with the percentage of these families increasing from 5.2% in 2006 to 7.1% in the latest census.' The director general of civil registration also noted the trend of declining marriages over the past few years, announcing, 'In the first six months of this year, after a period of stagnation, we faced a relative increase in marriage statistics with about 368,000 registrations, of which 303,000 marriages were recorded in urban areas and 64,000 in rural areas.' According to Mr. Mahzoon, the positive growth in marriages in the early months of the year occurred for various reasons, and there is no guarantee for continued positive growth in marriage statistics until the end of the year. He also referred to the issue of 'single-parent families,' stating, 'In these families, one parent is absent due to death, divorce, or abandonment, and the percentage of these families has reached nearly 7%, which has increased compared to previous decades.' Mr. Mahzoon also announced that there are 12% of 'female-headed families' in Iran, where due to death, divorce, disability, or the abandonment of the home by the man, the woman is forced to manage the household alone. He pointed out that the number of households with female heads has reached 2.5 million, adding, '31% of the women in these families are under 50 years old, and about 70% are over 50 years old.' The director general concluded by stating that changes and transformations in the family domain are due to marriage and divorce, saying, 'The statistics of divorce and marriage have led to a typology of families that consequently has increased single-parent families, single-person families, and female-headed families.' Previously, Mr. Mahzoon had stated in a television program that the decrease in marriages in the country has been accompanied by an increase in divorces, and the ratio between the two is growing annually. The director general of demographic statistics at the Civil Registration Organization had said in September of this year, 'In the early 1990s, for every hundred marriages, 6.3% resulted in divorce; in the early 2000s, this ratio reached 8.3%, and now it has risen to 22.6%.' According to Mr. Mahzoon, last year 163,000 divorces were registered in the country. The trend of increasing divorce statistics in Iran occurs while Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, on July 7, during a meeting with officials from the judiciary, referred to what he called 'some problems in family courts, including consensual divorce,' and asked judges to 'reduce such issues.'