The key facts
- In the first nine months of 2026, 38,614 divorces were registered, more than 40% of them being the registration of long-standing court decisions
- The decline in the number of marriages is explained by the drop in birth rates in 1993–2004
- The committee expects a noticeable increase in the number of marriages by 2040
Demographics and 'deferred' divorces
At a press conference on November 5, the Committee for Family and Women's Affairs explained what affects marriage and divorce statistics in Uzbekistan. Rahima Mirkholikulova, head of a department at the committee, said the analysis was conducted together with the Institute for Scientific Research on Family and Gender under the agency. According to her, the decline in the number of marriages among people aged 18–29 is influenced by the drop in birth rates in 1993–2004: it is precisely this generation that is now reaching the age of starting a family, reports Gazeta.
Why divorces have increased
In the first nine months of 2026, 38,614 divorces were registered, and more than 40% of them involved citizens who had been divorced by court decision in earlier years but had not registered the dissolution of the marriage with civil registry offices. Mirkholikulova gave an example from Kashkadarya: a couple married in 1980, and in 1981 they were divorced by court, but the decision was never registered. Both started new families and had children, and 45 years later, in 2026, a woman, while seeing a notary over a car transaction, learned that her first marriage was still formally not dissolved.
What practically changes for citizens
According to the committee representative, such cases began to be identified after the integration of government agencies' information systems — previously records were kept on paper. The problem particularly affects women applying for social assistance: when being included in the social register or the 'Women's Notebook', as well as when receiving a housing subsidy, the income of a man who is formally still a spouse but does not actually live with the woman is counted as family income. Therefore, some women are now submitting old court decisions to civil registry offices to officially register their divorce. 'A court decision in itself does not mean the marriage is dissolved. If the divorce is not registered with the civil registry office, it is not considered an officially recorded divorce,' noted Rahima Mirkholikulova.
Statistics and expectations
Earlier, the statistics agency reported that in January–June 2026, 92.3 thousand marriages and 24.8 thousand divorces were registered in the country: compared with the same period of 2025, there were 3 thousand fewer marriages and 1.5 thousand more divorces. In 2025, there were 267.1 thousand marriages — 4.7 thousand fewer than in 2024, and their number has been declining since 2021; divorces amounted to 46.9 thousand, 1.8 thousand more than a year earlier. According to the committee's assessment, the birth rate has been rising again in recent years, and this will affect the number of marriages in the future: a noticeable increase is expected by 2040.
