Marriages up by a third since end of Covid pandemic, figures show

Irish marriage rates shot up by more than a third in the immediate aftermath of Covid-19 and even surpassed pre-pandemic levels, a possible indicator of nuptials postponed or interrupted by the global health crisis.

Data released on Friday showed there were 23,173 legal unions during 2022, a rise of 35 per cent on the previous year.

In January, 2022, then taoiseach Micheál Martin announced the lifting of almost all remaining Covid-19 restrictions telling the Irish people “you did what you were asked to do.” Weddings, as with most aspects of normal life, had been heavily disrupted during the pandemic.

Life quickly returned to relative normality, a phenomena reflected in part in the Central Statistics Office annual marriage data.

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There were 20,313 marriages in Ireland in 2019, the year before the pandemic reached Ireland, plummeting to less than half that number (9,523) in 2020 before rising again to 17,217 the following year.

The 2022 rates rose above that of pre-pandemic marriages by 14 per cent.

Analysis shows the 2022 figures include 618 same-sex marriages but their proportion of overall unions has fallen over the last three years. They accounted for 2.6 per cent of all marriages last year, compared to 2.9 per cent in 2021 and 3.3 per cent the year before.

Average ages of newly-weds have remained unchanged in 2022 at 35.4 for brides and 37.4 for grooms. It was slightly higher for same sex couples at 39.4 and 38.2 years respectively.

Friday was the most popular day to get married for all couples last year, with the majority opting for a summer’s day out in July.

Roman Catholic ceremonies were the most popular in 2022 with 9,376 accounting for 40.5 per cent of the total. However, despite their dominance, they have continued to decline as a proportion of all unions, from just over 49 per cent in 2018, dipping to a low of 34.6 per cent in 2020 during Covid-19.

Responding to the religious ceremony aspect of the CSO report, Education Equality, an organisation established to campaign for an end to “religious discrimination” in State-funded schools, noted Catholic marriage ceremonies accounted for over 96 per cent of total unions in 1980. Civil ceremonies in 2022 accounted for just over a quarter of the total.

Holding the annual marriage figures as an indicator of religious belief and practice, Education Equality spokesman David Graham said the growing number of non-religious marriages was evidence of change.

“Yet our education system remains stuck in the past,” he said. “Our taxpayer-funded education system is forcing religion on young families against their will, in breach of their human and constitutional rights.”