Conversely, the number of divorce cases involving non-Muslims increased by 30.4% from 9,418 in 2020 to 12,284 last year, Bernama reported.

In a statement, Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said the decrease in the number of Muslim divorce cases could be attributed to the closure of the shariah court, civil court and national registration department (JPN) during the various movement control orders (MCOs) from March 18, 2020, to Nov 21, 2021, and the limited number of cases that could be handled by the court following the SOPs put in place during the MCO.

He said the three states that recorded the highest decline in Muslim divorce cases were Sarawak, Perlis and Penang.

Meanwhile, Selangor, Kedah and Kuala Lumpur recorded the highest number of non-Muslim divorce cases.

A similar pattern was observed in terms of the number of marriages, with an increase of 15.4% of Muslim marriages from 186,297 in 2020 to 214,943 in 2021.

Conversely, the number of non-Muslim marriages declined by 4.7% from 40,854 in 2020 to 38,941 in 2021.

“Three states that recorded the highest increase in Muslim marriages were Kelantan (61.3%), followed by Labuan (56%) and Putrajaya (37.3%),” Uzir said.