The report, which covers the activities of marriage registrars (mazouns), said 1,944 foreigners married Saudi women that year. It added that the region with the highest number of marriages was the Makkah region where 37,892 (26.2 percent) marriages took place.

This was followed by the Riyadh region with 30,759 marriages (21.3 percent); Najran came at the bottom of the list with 2,299 contracts (1.6 percent).

The report said an average of 396 marriages took place every day with each of the Kingdom’s 3,667 marriage officials conducting around 35. The officials, who are concerned only with documenting marriages among Saudi citizens, conducted 126,804 marriages (88 percent). The rest — 17,632 marriages (12 percent) — involved foreigners, who are required to marry in Shariah courts.

According to the report, 30,365 Saudis married in the Makkah region, 25,840 in Riyadh and 2,005 in Najran. There were also some 15,801 (11 percent) marriages in which one partner was non-Saudi — this figure includes 2,141 Saudis who married foreign women. Marriages to non-Saudi women include 1,017 marriages to Yemeni nationals followed by 164 to Syrians, 145 to Pakistanis and 104 to Palestinians.

The report said 1,944 foreigners married Saudi women, including 419 Yemenis, 407 Kuwaitis, 193 Qataris and 176 Syrians. It added that marriages among Filipinos were the highest with 323 contracts followed by Yemenis (30) and Pakistanis (28).