Date Published: Tue, 31 Mar 2015

The CSO today released the Vital Statistics, Marriages and Civil Partnerships 2014 report. Some of the key points highlighted in the report are as follows:

Marriages

• There were 22,045 marriages registered in 2014 which is 1,365 marriages more than in 2013 when 20,680 couples married. 22,045 marriages equates to a crude (unadjusted) marriage rate of 4.8 per 1,000 of the population in 2014, 0.3 percentage points higher per 1,000 of the population then for 2013.

• The average age of the grooms in 2014 was 35.0 years, 0.1 years more than the equivalent age in 2013. The average age of brides was 33.0 in 2014, also up 0.2 from 32.8 in 2013. The average age of the groom in civil marriages was 37.6 years while the average age of the groom in Roman Catholic marriages was 33.5 years.

• August was the most popular month for marriage in 2014 when over 14% (or 3,160) of marriages occurred. January was the least popular month to tie the knot with 740 marriages occurring during that month in 2014.

• 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 407 couples choosing this day to wed.

• Civil marriages accounted for 28% of all marriages, down 1% from 2013. Roman Catholic marriage ceremonies accounted for over 59% of all marriages in 2014, down 3% from 2013. 

• 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 30, where the bride was older in nearly 41% of marriages.

• Over 88% (19,413) of marriages were the first marriage for both the groom and bride. There were 2,451 marriages involving at least one divorced person in 2014.

• 2014 marks the 150th anniversary of marriage records. The crude (unadjusted) marriage rate was 4.8 per 1,000 of population in 1864, the same rate as in 2014. All of the historical reports from 1864 are available on the CSO website www.cso.ie

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 1st January, 2011. 

• There were 392 civil partnerships registered in 2014, 242 male unions and 150 female unions. The average age of partners in civil partnership couples was 37.8 years, the average age of male partners being 36.8 and average age of female partners was 39.5.

• Over 76% (298) of the same-sex couples that entered into civil partnerships in 2014, reside in the Leinster area with 155 such couples (52%) living in Dublin City.

• Of the 784 individual partners, some 753 or 96% were previously single while 27 (over 3%) were divorcees.

• There was a 1 to 4 year difference in ages in over 36% of all male partnerships compared with almost 45% of female partnerships.

– ENDS –