Marriages 2005

Almost half of brides aged over thirty on wedding day

In 2005 almost half (49%) of brides were aged thirty or over on their wedding day, compared with 44% and 28% in 2002 and 1996 respectively. The proportion of older grooms has also increased, with almost two out of three (64%) aged thirty or
over in 2005 compared with 59% in 2002 and 42% in 1996.

The average age of grooms in 2005 was 33.1 years, over half a year higher than the average age of 32.5 in 2002, and almost 3 years higher than the average age of 30.2 in 1996. Similarly, brides' average age of 31.0 years in 2005 is over half a year higher than the 2002 figure of 30.4 and over 2 and a half years higher than the 1996 figure of 28.4.

These figures are contained in the Central Statistics Office's Vital Statistics, Marriages report for 2005.

The number of marriages registered in 2005 was 21,355, which works out as 5.2 marriages per 1,000 of the population. This compares with a total of 20,556 and a marriage rate of 5.2 per thousand in 2002.

The number of civil marriages was 4,762 or just over 22% of all marriages, an increase of 1,079 on the 2002 figure, and over 5 times more than the 1996 figure of 928. In 2002, almost 18% of marriages were civil marriages, and in 1996 just under 6% of all marriages were civil. A contributing factor to this increase was the legalisation of divorce in 1997 and the consequential increase in the incidence of re-marriage.

There were 19,759 (92.5%) grooms and 20,055 (93.9%) brides marrying for the first time in 2005. There were 197 (0.9%) widowers and 167 (0.8%) widows. Divorced men accounted for 6.6% (1,399) of grooms while divorced women accounted for 5.3% (1,133) of brides.

There were 2,112 marriages involving at least one divorced person in 2005, including 420 marriages where both parties were divorced. Civil ceremonies accounted for 1,728 of these marriages, 270 were Roman Catholic ceremonies, and 114 were other religious ceremonies.

The average age of grooms marrying for the first time was 32 years. The average age among widowers was 56.9 years, and the average age among divorced men was 46.2 years. For brides, women marrying for the first time had an average age of 30.2 years, widows 50.3 years, and divorced women 42.6 years.

The groom was older than the bride in 63% of marriages, the same age in a further 13% of marriages and in the remaining 24% of cases the bride was older than the groom.

The most popular month for marriage in 2005 was September, when 14% of marriages occurred while January was the least popular month with just 3% of marriages occurring during that month. Saturday is the most popular day of the week to get married with 35% of marriages occurring on that day. The least popular day was Sunday when just over 1% of marriages were recorded.

Marriages, 2005 is available on our website www.cso.ie.

Hard copies available from the:

Central Statistics Office, Information Section, Skehard Road, Cork,

Government Publications Sales Office, Sun Alliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2,

or through any bookseller.

For more information contact Joseph Keating (LoCall 1890 313 414 ext 5121).

Internet address: www.cso.ie

23 May 2007

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