ALMOST a quarter of all marriage ceremonies take place in a registry office, a dramatic change from the situation in the 1990s.New figures released by the Central Statistics Office, based on a study of the decade 1996 to 2006, show that 23% of marriages are solemnised in a civic office and not in a church, temple or other place of worship.
The number of Catholic Church ceremonies has also shown a marked change over the decade, down from 90% in 1996 to 73% in 2006.
The number of marriages registered in 2006 was 22,089, 5.2 per 1,000 of the population. This rate was the same as in 2005, with 21,355 marriages or 5.2 per 1,000, and 16,174 (4.5 per 1,000) in 1996.
The number of civil marriages was 5,127, or just over 23% of all marriages, in 2006, an increase of 365 on the 2005 figure.
In 1996, there were 928 civil marriages (6%) in Ireland.
The number of Catholic marriage ceremonies was 16,211 in 2006 and accounted for 73% of all marriages in the year, compared with 74% in 2005 and 90% in 1996.
The average age of grooms in 2006 was 33.2 years, compared with 33.1 years in 2005 and 30.2 years in 1996.
The pattern for brides is similar, with the average age increasing from 28.4 years in 1996 to 31.0 and 31.2 years in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
There were 20,411 (92.4%) grooms and 20,713 (93.8%) brides marrying for the first time in 2006.
This compares with over 99% of grooms and brides marrying for the first time in 1996, when divorce was not yet legalised.
There were 201 (0.9%) widowers and 147 (0.7%) widows who married in 2006.
Divorced men accounted for 6.7% (1,477) of grooms while divorced women accounted for 5.6% (1,229) of brides.
There were 2,253 marriages involving at least one divorced person in 2006, including 453 marriages where both parties were divorced.
Civil ceremonies accounted for 1,851 of these marriages, 260 were Catholic ceremonies, and 142 were other religious ceremonies.
The average age of grooms marrying for the first time was 32.1 years.
The average age among widowers was 56.0 years, and the average age among divorced men was 46.3 years.
For brides, women marrying for the first time had an average age of 30.4 years, widows, 50.6 years, and divorced women, 42.9 years.
The most popular month for marriage in 2006 was August, while January was the least popular month.
* For more on the changing nature of Irish marriage visit www.cso.ie.
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