Marital status
Currently, half of the population of Aruba (51.0%) has never been married, a third (33.4%) is married, a tenth is divorced (10.0%), and 4.1% is widowed. The remaining 1.4% is either living with a registered partner with a cohabitation agreement, or is divorced or widowed from a registered partner (0.3%, and 0.1%, respectively). During the last 6 decades, the marital status of the population has undergone some changes, which are related to the changing age structure of the population and possibly to changing attitudes towards marriage and divorce. In 1960, when the share of young children (between 0 and 14 years of age) in the population of Aruba was relatively larger, 60.1% of the population had never been married, 31.8% was married, 0.9% was divorced and 2.3% was widowed.
Source: Population and Housing Census, 1960, 1972, 1981, 1991, 2000, 2010, 2020
Marriages
In 2022, 546 marriages were registered at the Civil Registry and Population Office. The marriage rate stood at 5.1 marriages per 1.000 population. The marriage rate has been on a steady decline, except for a sudden increase in the number of marriages between 1999 and 2000.
The mean age at which persons enter into their first marriage has also been subject to change. While in 1960, males entered into their first marriage at age 26.3 years, in 2019, they married for the first time at age 29.6 years. The same trend is seen in females. In 1960, females entered their first marriage at age 23.1, and in 2019 at age 27.2 years.
Divorces
In 2022, 323 divorces were registered at the Civil Registry and Population Office. In the last 30 years, the number of divorces has been slowly increasing from around 200 divorces in the late 1980’s to an average of 338 in the last 5 years. Between 2002 and 2014, a spike can be seen in the number of divorces. However, due to the growth of the population of Aruba, the divorce rate has remained relatively stable at an average of 3.9 divorces per 1.000 population between 1985 and 2022.
In the third quarter of 2023, 620 marriages, and 593 divorces were registered.
Source: The Civil Registry and Population Office
Source: The Civil Registry and Population Office