Riyadh: More than 3.5 lakh women got divorced in Saudi Arabia in 2022.
The latest report issued by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) has revealed that 350,741 women got divorced last year.The 30 to 34 age group had the highest divorce rate with more than 54,000 cases, followed by the 35 to 39 age group with more than 53,000 divorces and the 15 to 19 age group with over 2,400 cases. According to the GASTAT report, the number of never-married women reached 873,240 from the age of 15 to 19 years, which is the highest compared to the rest of the age groups. In addition, 2022 observed a count of 203,469 widows. This deep dive into statistics comes after examining numerous studies, archive data, and the results of the 2022 Census, providing insight into women’s roles in education, health, sports, technology, and more. The age groups 15 10 19 and 20 to 24 years witnessed the highest percentage of females, as they numbered 916,439 and 850,780, respectively. According to the report, the unemployment rate among Saudi women decreased to 15.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to previous years. Saudi women account for 49.99 percent of the total number of higher education students, including bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees. Physical health also stands out as a priority among women. A remarkable 38.7 percent of women aged 15 and over-committed to at least 30 minutes of weekly physical activity in 2021, recording the best numbers in recent years.