The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (10 March 2026) looked at all the weddings that took place between 2011 and 2024, inclusive, to see what the most popular date was to get married over that period.
The CSO’s latest Data Visualisation App on Popular Weddings Dates shows that despite its traditional association with weddings, not one date in June featured in the top ten, with dates in December and August dominating instead.
While the summer months, on average, typically have more weddings, it might be surprising to know that certain dates in winter proved the most popular choice for couples tying the knot in Ireland. In fact, dates in December claimed four of the top five places.
Those festive downtime days between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and dates around the August Bank Holiday weekend seemed to play a significant part for lovestruck couples with an eye on the practical when it came to choosing their big day.
New Year’s Eve was the most popular date to get married over the 14-year period we examined, with on average 189 weddings occurring on this day over this time. The top dates were:
The only other dates where an average of 100 or more weddings took place were 01 June, 24 August, 07 September, and 17 August.
The least popular days to get married over this 14-year period were also all in December. These were 24 December (an average of four marriages), 26 December (an average of three marriages) and unsurprisingly, 25 December, when no marriages were recorded.
While the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve were on average some of the most popular days to get married, December was actually the 6th most popular month to get married between 2011 and 2024, with 1,811 marriages occurring in this month.
Most marriages in Ireland occur at the height of our Irish summer or those months closest to it. On average, the top five most popular months to get married were August (2,733), July (2,446), September (2,333), June (2,073), and October (1,855).
In contrast, January (612), and February (803) were the least popular months on average for couples to choose to get married. However, St Valentines’ Day on 14 February was close to the hearts of some romantics, with an average number of 55 weddings taking place on this day. It ranked as the 167th most popular day to get married, with the next closest date in January and February, 01 January, coming in 277th position.
Interestingly, the day before St. Patrick’s Day, March 16, was the 37th most popular day to get married with an average of 90 couples choosing this day to tie the knot, and it was by far the most popular date to get married in the first five months of the year.
All of this new information is contained in our latest data visualisation app on Most Popular Wedding Dates. This allows you to pick a date or a month to see how popular it has proved over the years 2011-2024.
It complements some of the other popular data visualisation apps such as popular Names of Ireland app and the newly updated Popular Birthdays app.
Check out more on CSO Interactive Data Visualisation Apps
According to the latest data in our Marriages 2024 release, there were 20,348 marriages registered in Ireland in 2024, which included 668 same-sex marriages.
The average age of brides and grooms stood at 35.9 years for brides and 37.7 years for grooms.
Friday was the most popular day to get married, and Tuesday was the least popular. August was the most popular month to wed for opposite-sex couples, while September was the most popular month for same-sex couples to marry in 2024. January was the least popular month for all couples to tie the knot.
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