NEW DATA from the Central Statistics Office has shown that the average age to get married in Ireland is increasing.
The average age for a brides to wed in 2021 was 35.4 years old, and with the average age for grooms being 37.4 years.
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.
Other facts that the data shows include Friday being the most popular day for couples to get married, with August and September being the most popular months for opposite-sex and same-sex couples to wed respectively.
January was the least favoured month to tie the knot for all couples, while Sundays and Tuesdays were the least popular days of the week to marry for all couples.
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.
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.
