Marriages and Civil Partnerships 2012

The CSO today released the Vital Statistics, Marriages and Civil Partnerships 2012 report.

Some of the key points highlighted in the report are as follows:

Marriages

• There were 20,713 marriages registered in 2012, up over 4.3% from 2011 when 19,855 couples married. 20,713 marriages equates to a crude marriage rate of 4.5 per 1,000 of the population in 2012, up slightly from the crude marriage rate of 4.3 per 1,000 of the population in 2011.

• The average age of the grooms in 2012 was 34.7 years, 0.1 years more than the equivalent age in 2011. The average age of brides was 32.6 in 2012, also up 0.1 from 32.5 in 2011. The average age of the groom in civil marriages was 37.9 years while the average age of the groom in Roman Catholic marriages was 33.2 years.

• August was the most popular month for marriage in 2012 when nearly 15% (or 3,046) of marriages occurred. January was the least popular month to tie the knot with 449 marriages occurring during that month in 2012.

• Friday and Saturday were the most popular days of the week to marry with 7 out of 10 marriages occurring on these days. Sunday was the least popular day to wed with only 220 couples choosing this day to wed.

• Civil marriages accounted for 28% of all marriages, down 1 per cent from 2011. Roman Catholic marriage ceremonies accounted for 65% of all marriages in 2012 also down 1 per cent from 2011.

• In almost two-thirds (63%) of marriages, the groom was older than the bride across all age groups except in the case of grooms under 25, where the bride was older in 43% of marriages.

• Over 88% (18,286) of marriages were the first marriage for both the groom and bride. There were 2,273 marriages involving at least one divorced person in 2012.

Civil Partnerships

Civil Partnerships, introduced by the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, enabled same-sex couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationship and this regulation came in to force on the 1^st January, 2011.

• There were 429 civil partnerships registered in 2012, 263 male unions and 166 female unions. The average age of partners in civil partnership couples was 41.6 years, the average age of male partners being 41.1 and average age of female partners was 42.2.

• Over 69% (298) of the same-sex couples that entered into civil partnerships in 2012, reside in the Leinster area with 148 such couples (34%) living in Dublin City.

• Of the 858 individual partners, some 794 or almost 93% were previously single while 60 (7%) were divorcees.

• There was a 1 to 4 year difference in ages in almost 37% of all male partnerships compared to almost 49% of female partnerships.

For more information contact:

Carol Anne Hennessy 021 453 5307 or Marie Crowley 021 453 5016.

Central Statistics Office                                                       28 March 2014

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