Peru: marriages fall and the separations increase, alert family observatory

The Family Observatory (OFAM) of the University of Piura warned that in Peru marriages are in decline, while separations and coexistence continue to increase, which could bring serious social and demographic consequences for the next generations.

He report “Marital state of Peruvian women”based on figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), shows that between 2015 and 2023 the percentage of women married in child 22% al 17%while the separate ones rose from 10% al 14%.

In contrast, cohabiting women went from representing the 45% in 2015 to 48% in 2023consolidating as the predominant marital state in the country.

The second most frequent group was that of single women, which remained relatively stable around 22%. An exception occurred in 2020, when the percentage rose to 26%, coinciding with a reduction of coexistence (from 46%to 42%), a situation that researchers attribute to social isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gloria Huercaya, a university professor and co -author of the report, said in an interview with Ewtn News that this scenario responds to a global dynamic: “It is actually a trend of all the countries of the West: this decline of marriage and a consequent popularization of cohabitation is observed.”

The researcher warned that this situation directly affects birth to social stability: “About 75% of children in Latin America are born out of marriage, and in Peru this figure reaches 90%, that is, nine out of ten children.”

Huercaya explained that cohabiting households usually have fewer children and have greater fragility. “We do not know the exact reason, but the hypothesis could be dissolved sooner, because they do not have so much stability. With this reality, in the future, Peru may not have young people who replace adults, because they are more than those who are born than those born.”

Currently, the fertility rate in the country is 1.8 children per womanbelow the generational replacement level estimated at 2.1 since 2015, explains the specialist.

Professor Guillermo Dulanto, professor of Economy at the UDEP and also co -author of the report, added that the de facto unions carry greater risks. “It impacts violence against a woman: there is more violence in households where they are cohabiting than in households where they are married. It also impacts education: the children of living together have a lower educational level than the children of married marriages,” he said.

For his part, Huercaya said that economic vulnerability hits women strongly, since “having a less stable relationship, they suffer economic vulnerability with separation.”

“In most cases they assume the economic support that the father should contribute, in addition they are usually taken care of the home and the son, which becomes a domestic work recharge,” he adds.

Solution path

Given this problem, specialists propose that the State implement public policies that promote marriage stability. One of the suggestions is to facilitate loans for the acquisition of the first house with low interestwhich could be reduced as couples have children.

“This could become an incentive to favor the stability of couples, the formation of marriages and, of course, the increase in birth rate,” said the authors of the report.