Less transnational couples are divorcing in Taiwan, the statistics' bureau said on Sunday. 

Transnational couples, made up of a Taiwanese citizen and a foreign national, accounted for about 20 percent of Taiwan's divorces last year. According to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (DGBAS), 53,000 divorces were filed in 2015, seeing a measly 0.5 percent year-on-year increase. 

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Out of the 53,000, 11,000 divorces filed in 2015 involved a transnational couple, posting an annual 3.3 percent drop. This corresponds to 20.7 percent of the total divorces in Taiwan. 

10,000 of the divorced transnational couple involved a Taiwanese man, while 62 percent of the women are Chinese nationals (women from Hong Kong and Macau included).

The number of divorce of transnational couples has seen a slow decline since 2010 when it hit a 15-year record high, accounting for 26.2 percent of total separation. This is mostly because of the 24.4 percent rise in the number of Taiwanese-Chinese couples. 

"Recent studies in Taiwan have demonstrated that marriage migrants are likely to endure domestic violence because of language barrier, economic restriction, poor family support, and power asymmetry," researchers from the National Taiwan Normal University wrote. 

The study noted that the patriarchal family system and masculinity amplify the power asymmetry between migrant women and their husbands, which ultimately leads to a high divorce rate.

Overall, the divorce rate in Taiwan since 2001 has been on a roller coaster, dipping and spiking throughout the years until 2013. 

Meanwhile, the number of marriages registered in 2015 saw a 3.4 annual increase with 154,000 couples tying the knot, the DGBAS said. 20,000 of these were transnational marriages, a 1.5 percent yearly increase. 

Tagstransnational divorce in Taiwan, divorce in Taiwan, marriage in Taiwan, migrant women in Taiwan, divorce rates, marriage records