Press Statement

Preasráiteas

29 April 2022

Go to release: Marriages 2021

The CSO has today (29 April 2022) published Marriages 2021, with data compiled from the marriage registration forms of all marriages registered in Ireland in 2021. 

Commenting on the report, Gerard Doolan, Statistician, said: “There were 17,217 marriages in Ireland in 2021 including 500 same-sex marriages. This equates to a crude (unadjusted) marriage rate of 3.4 per 1,000 population. While the number of marriages celebrated in 2021 increased by 81% from 2020, it was still down 15% from 2019 when there were 20,313 marriages, reflecting the impact of COVID-19 restrictions.

The average age of men in an opposite-sex marriage was 37.4 years while the average age of men in a same-sex marriage was higher at 40.4 years. The average age of women in an opposite-sex marriage was 35.4 in 2021, while the comparable age for women in a same-sex marriage was 39.9 years.   

The most popular form of ceremony for opposite-sex couples was a Catholic ceremony (40%), followed by a Civil ceremony (34%). The popularity of these two forms of ceremonies for opposite-sex couples has been in decline since 2014 however, when they accounted for 87% of all marriage ceremonies. A Civil ceremony was the choice of 328 same-sex couples (66%). A Humanist ceremony accounted for 8.3% or 1,394 of all opposite-sex marriages and 13.6% or 68 of all same-sex marriages in 2021. 

With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, it’s no surprise to see the return of August and September as the most popular months for opposite-sex marriages and September and July for same-sex ceremonies. January was the least favoured month to tie the knot for all couples.

Friday and Saturday continue to be the most popular days to tie the knot for opposite-sex couples, while Friday, followed by Thursday were the most favoured days to wed for same-sex couples. These are unchanged from 2020 results. Sundays and Tuesdays were the least popular days of the week to marry for all couples."

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