60% of divorces take place during first year of marriage

Sixty percent of divorce cases in the Kingdom take place in the first year of marriage, said a judge.
Official data reveals that divorce rates have reached 35 percent “which is considered higher than the global average of between 18 and 22 percent.”
Divorce rate in Jeddah was the highest (60 percent), followed by Riyadh (39 percent), Ahsa (20 percent) and the Eastern Province (18 percent), according to data released by the Family Development Center (FDC), an affiliate of the Al-Bir Charitable Society in Al-Ahsa.
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Jirani, the judge at the endowments and inheritances department in the Ministry of Justice in Qatif, attributed divorce occurrences to many reasons, including the lack of Shariah awareness (25 percent), presence of organic and sexual diseases (5 percent), frequent travel and absence from home (5 percent), financial inadequacy and failure to meet the wife’s needs and leading luxurious life (20 percent), technological progress and social networking issues (20 percent), marital infidelity (15 percent), polygamy (10 percent) and absence of equity and justice between wives.
Last December, the Justice Ministry said it would conduct a study aimed at determining reasons of the spiraling divorce rates in the Kingdom.
A ministry official said they want to gather accurate information on divorce rates and their impact on society and the judiciary. The ministry wants to publish a guidebook to warn couples on potential problems to their marriages, he said.