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The average age of brides and grooms has increased by almost nine years since 1978, according to the latest data released from the Central Statistics Office.
The average age of men getting married last year was 34.9 years, compared to 23.2 years in 1977 and the average age for women to get married in 2013 was 32.8 years, compared to 24 in 1977.
There were 20,680 marriages registered last year, just 33 fewer marriages than 2012 when 20,713 couples got married.
Divorces increased by 3 percent in 2013, with 2,949 divorces granted in 2013.
The figures are contained in the CSO Vital Statistics report for 2013 published today which collates the numbers of births, deaths and marriages registered in Ireland last year.
In 2012, the latest year for which data is available on the EU, Ireland had the ninth highest marriage rate in the EU, along with Greece and Estonia, with a rate of 4.5 marriages per 1,000 of the population.
Lithuania had the highest marriage rate in the EU with a rate of 6.9 per 1,000 people while Bulgaria had the lowest rate with 2.9 per 1,000 people.
August was still the most popular month for marriages in 2013, and Friday and Saturday were the most popular days of the week to get married.
January was the least popular month to get married last year with only 555 marriages taking place.
In 2013, 62.5 per cent of the 20,680 marriages registered were Roman Catholic ceremonies, while civil marriages accounted for 29.5 percent of the total.
Civil marriage ceremonies were also the most common form of ceremony for brides and grooms over the age of 40 in 2013.
Under the Civil Partnership Act, there were 338 civil partnerships registered in 2013, with 208 male unions and 130 female unions.
Almost 74 per cent of same sex couples who got married in 2013 live in the Leinster area with 41 per cent of of those in civil partnerships living in Dublin city and 22 percent in the greater Dublin area.
Outside Dublin, Cork had the highest number of civil partnerships (18) registered in 2013, which accounted for over 5 per cent of all civil partnerships registered last year.