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Marriages registered by people aged 60 and over ‘more than double over past decade’

Number of those in Republic aged 65-plus rises 40%, according to Central Statistics Office

The rise in the number of later marriages comes amid overall growth in the older population in the State, according to the CSO. Photograph: iStock

Laura Slattery
Fri Jan 26 2024 - 15:49

The number of marriages registered by people aged 60 years and over more than doubled between 2012 and 2022, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

In an update on its information hub on older people, the CSO said marriage registrations by this age group had increased from 505 in 2012 to 1,028 in 2022.

The rise in later marriages comes amid overall growth in the older population in the State.

The number of people aged 65 years and over is estimated to have risen by more than 40 per cent between 2013 and 2023, from 569,000 to 806,000, and it is expected to double again to 1.6 million by 2051, said the CSO.

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In 2022, in approximately 5 per cent of households that were owner-occupied with a loan or mortgage, the owner was a person aged 65 years or over, it added.

More than 113,000 people aged 65 and over were in employment in the third quarter of 2023, working an average of 31.1 hours per week.

Between 2017 and 2021, the number of domestic overnight trips taken by those aged 65-plus more than doubled, from approximately 125,000 trips to 269,000.

There was an almost 80 per cent increase in the number of people aged 70 and older holding full driving licences between 2012 and 2022, with the number rising from 205,000 to 366,000, it said.

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While some 13 per cent of women aged 75-plus were likely to use the bus at least weekly, only 7 per cent of men aged 75-plus do so.

The hub was launched in September 2022 to provide a snapshot of the lives of older people in Ireland, highlighting social and economic indicators from a broad range of Central Statistics Office publications and sources from across the government system.

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“The population of Ireland is ageing, with life expectancy increasing and older people continuing to be an active and vibrant part of our community. The Older Persons Information Hub includes both social and economic indicators, which cover health, education, employment, poverty, life events, and more,” said Sarah Crilly, a statistician in the CSO’s health division.

“This reflects the full and varied lives led by older people in our country with many continuing to work and act as carers in the community,” she added.

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“What we can see from the data on the older persons hub is the quality of life many of our older citizens enjoy.”

Fewer than half (42 per cent) of those aged 75 years and over have never used the internet, in comparison with 13 per cent of those aged 60 to 74 years.

Three-fifths (58 per cent) of those aged 75 years or over reported finding it very easy to get practical help from neighbours, compared with two-fifths (40 per cent) of those aged 25-34 years.

For those aged 65 and over, almost two-thirds of males (62 per cent) and more than half of women (55 per cent) experienced some difficulty with household activities in 2019.

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery is an Irish Times journalist writing about media, advertising and other business topics

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