The recent amendment to certain provisions of the Amiri Decree regarding the Kuwaiti Nationality Law aims to enhance national identity, uphold public order, and eliminate Article Eight, which previously stated that a foreign woman marrying a Kuwaiti man would not acquire Kuwaiti nationality. As a result, there has been a 75 percent increase in the number of Kuwaiti women marrying Kuwaiti men, alongside a decline in foreign marriages. Recent statistics from the Department of Legal Documentation at the Ministry of Justice reveal that from January to the end of April 2025, there were 2,916 marriages between Kuwaiti men and Kuwaiti women. Additionally, the data shows that 332 Kuwaiti men married non-Kuwaiti women, 133 Kuwaiti women married non-Kuwaiti men, 44 Kuwaiti men married Bedouns, and 10 Kuwaiti women married Bedouns.
In April 2025, the Sharia Documentation Department reported that there were 1,419 divorces among Kuwaiti couples, 332 divorces involving Kuwaiti husbands and non-Kuwaiti wives, and 141 divorces where Kuwaiti women were married to non-Kuwaiti men. Additionally, the department documented a total of 1,149 marriages, categorized by nationality.
Among these marriages, 75 percent involved both spouses being Kuwaiti nationals, while 13.4 percent were between two non-Kuwaiti nationals. Marriages with a Kuwaiti husband and a non-Kuwaiti wife accounted for 8.4 percent, and those with a non-Kuwaiti husband and a Kuwaiti wife made up 3.2 percent of the total. Overall, there were 117 documented authentication cases based on the nationality of the husband and wife.
The documented authentication cases reveal that 4.3 percent involved both spouses being Kuwaiti citizens, while 29.9 percent involved both spouses being non-Kuwaiti citizens. In cases where the husband is Kuwaiti and the wife is non-Kuwaiti, the rate was 60.7 percent. Conversely, when the husband is non-Kuwaiti and the wife is Kuwaiti, the percentage was 5.1 percent.
In total, there were 754 documented divorces categorized by the nationality of the husband and wife. Among these, 59.1 percent involved both spouses being Kuwaiti citizens, and 18.4 percent involved both being non-Kuwaiti citizens. The rate of divorces where the husband is Kuwaiti and the wife is non-Kuwaiti was 15.9 percent, while the percentage for the reverse situation—husband being non-Kuwaiti and wife being Kuwaiti—was 6.5 percent.
