Divorce in the Maldives Is Not on the Rise. It Has Already Settled at a High

The irony of the Maldives being marketed as a honeymoon destination to the world while the country is also noted for its high divorce rate is not lost on most people. 

At some point in the late 2000s, something shifted in the Maldivian society. 

Every year, the country records thousands of divorce cases. Close to 3,500 divorce cases have been finalised annually in recent years. That’s close to 10 divorce cases a day. 

Divorce is often spoken about as if it were a recent problem in our culture. A rising issue, a moral failing that’s spiraling out of control. However, the uncovered data points to a much more complex pattern.

For more than two decades, divorce has remained consistently high across generations and clustered around certain regions. 

How common is divorce in the Maldives?

Data from 2002 to 2024 indicate that the nation recorded 120,393 marriages and 64,821 divorces. This brings the national divorce rate to 53.84 percent. 

But if we look at just the last decade, that is, from 2014 to 2024, the divorce rate comes to 63.39 percent!

This means whether you consider the past decade or the past two decades, more than half of the marriages in the Maldives end in dissolution. 

Divorce rates are Highest in the South, Lowest in the North

While the average national divorce rate sits comfortably at 54 percent, from the data available across the past two decades, divorce rates across regions fluctuate. Across divorce rates, they range from 41.8 percent to 62.6 percent, which is a gap of over 20 percent.

If we look at the top eight atolls with the highest divorce rates, at least five of those atolls belong to the South, the highest being Gaafu Dhaalu atoll with 62.6 percent. This shows a pattern. 

On the other end of the spectrum, out of the four atolls with the lowest rates of divorce, three of those atolls belong to the North. According to data, Haa Alif has the lowest divorce rate, with 41.8 percent. 

But these are still not low numbers. Divorce is high everywhere in the country. But it is undeniable that a pattern of marriages dissolving exists higher in some regions than others. 

One might consider Male’ area to be the divorce capital of the country, but the divorce rate of Male’ area is a lot closer to the national average. Interestingly enough, the divorce rate of Male’ area and the combined average of the atolls are closer to the national average. 

Is divorce increasing or stable?

Divorce in the Maldives was not a gradual rise; it was a shift. 

Between 2010 to 2013, the average divorce rate of mid-40 percentage range rose sharply to above 60 percent, and it has been consistently high since. 

For more than a decade, the annual number of divorce cases have held between 3,200 and 3,500. While there are minor fluctuations, the overall pattern has remained. And while some of these dips and rises coincide with political and social changes, they will remain as correlations until further research is done to confirm their causes.  

Divorce in the Maldives has plateaued at a “new normal” since 2012. The good news is that divorce is no longer fluctuating. The bad news is that it has stabilised at a high level.

The story of marriages in the past two decades

In the early and mid-2000s, marriage numbers significantly outnumbered divorce cases. Marriage numbers also peaked in the late 2000s. However, today, that gap is much smaller.

This does not necessarily mean fewer people are getting married these days. It reflects a system where divorce has remained persistently high, even as marriage numbers have stabilised.

Peak divorce times

Even within a year, the dissolution of marriages is not random. It follows a distinct pattern. Through an RTI received from Family Court, we were able to calculate the average of divorce cases monthly, throughout the years 2020 to 2024. 

The average of these last four years shows that divorce peaks twice a year in the country: once at the beginning and at the end. Between these periods, there is a noticeable dip around the mid-year. 

The graph for divorce looks, aptly, a lot like a tide.

Societal Impact of a High Divorce Rate

Whether divorce is good or bad, or whether marriage is good or bad, are conclusions you’d arrive at based on where you land on the political or social spectrum. A socially conservative person might view divorce as a social evil, one that leads to broken families and a dysfunctional next generation. 

However, a socially liberal person might view divorces as personal freedom that comes with financially independent women who are now given choices that do not trap them in abusive marriages. 

This report is not judgment; it’s a record.  

Research published by MNU researchers Fathimath Ahmed and Aminath Riyaz, titled ‘Causes  of  Divorce  in  the  Maldives:  An  In-Depth Socio-Economic Analysis,’ found that young people get divorced for a myriad of reasons. 

They include immaturity, irresponsibility, infidelity, incompatibility and poor communication, inadequate housing and in-law conflicts, marrying for freedom from family, domestic violence, substance abuse, and women’s employment.

A similar study suggests children of divorce may face difficulties in later relationships, potentially increasing the likelihood of divorce in adulthood; thus, perpetuating a cycle of broken families. 

However, the same study found that divorce itself is not always the direct cause of these broken children, but parental conflict, quality of parenting, and emotional environment may contribute. This means a bad marriage may be more damaging than a divorce. What’s missing in a system that has such a normalised high divorce rate is that there are no structured support systems for children of divorce in the Maldives. 

Children of divorce do not receive the counseling and emotional support they should. As a result, this ineffective system is breeding a cycle of emotionally maladjusted adults who take these traumas into their future relationships, including marriage. 

The figures are not merely statistics. It’s quietly shaping how new generations love, form attachments, and form relationships. And in a country with a high divorce rate, establishing a strong family counseling system is not optional, it’s a necessity that the government can no longer afford to neglect.

Because when a social phenomenon is this widespread and this persistent, it cannot be treated as an exception to be moralised about. It should be treated as a reality that our institutions must respond to. Divorces cannot be treated as a private misfortune anymore, but as a social reality.

And the idea that divorce is “rising” is incorrect, according to figures. It rose rapidly in the early 2000s and has remained high for more than a decade now. It’s not a temporary phase. Divorce is now a defining feature of Maldivian society.