Statistics on marriage and divorce in Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency has recently published details of marriages, divorces and civil partnerships in Northern Ireland in 2012.

The statistics show that:

• In 2012, there were 8,480 marriages registered in Northern Ireland, a 1% increase on the 2011 figure (8,366 marriages).
• Over the last two decades, civil ceremonies have become increasingly popular. Last year almost one third (31%) of all marriages were celebrated by a civil ceremony – in total 2,626 out of 8,480 marriages were by civil ceremony.
• The average age of brides and grooms continues to be approximately five years older than their counterparts two decades ago. Last year the “average” groom was nearly 34 years old and the “average” bride almost 32.
• Almost half (47%) of civil marriages took place at Approved Venues other than Registrar’s Offices, while 13% of religious marriages took place at venues other than religious buildings.
• Saturday 25th August 2012 was the most popular day to get married last year, with 113 couples getting married on that date, closely followed by Saturday 7th July 2012 with 112 marriages.
• The number of divorces peaked in 2007 when 2,913 were recorded. Last year the number of divorces recorded (2,444) was slightly above the average level for the last two decades (1992-2012 average of 2,393 divorces annually).
• There were 101 same-sex civil partnerships registered in 2012.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0.