Irish Sunday Mirror

WEDDING’S OFF

Number of people getting hitched to decline while divorces set for rise 60% 37.5% 4.9% 29.6

- BY LYNNE KELLEHER

Children hit shore Ramune Verikaite, Economic and Consumer Data Manager at Euromonito­r Internatio­nal, said the expected fall in Irish marriage rates in the future is due to a drop in the numbers of those of typical marrying age. He added: “People in Ireland usually get married around their 30s.

POPULATION

“Looking at population by age we can observe the share of population aged

Sun bathers at Partmarnoc­k 25-34 in total population will be decreasing over the next decade. It is mainly caused by low birth generation­s coming to fertile and marital age. Low number of such people means lower number of births as well as marriages.”

The report, titled Ireland in 2030: The Future Demographi­c, said on average women will have their first child at 29.6 years in 2030, a slight rise from 2017 but nearly five years later than in 1980.

It stated 37.5% of the population will be married between the years 2017 to 2030 – lower than the 41% average for Western European countries.

Mr Verikaite believes the slight increase in divorces in another 12 years is due to a bump in the number of marriages in more recent years.

He added: “Divorce is a cancellati­on of marriage, thus it is related to marriage.

“This relationsh­ip has a lag because people usually divorce after 10 years of marriage, at least in Europe.”

Last year the Central Statistics Office reported 50.9% of weddings which took place last year were Catholic, 29.1% were civil, 7.8% were humanist and the rest were other religions.

Marriage rate is expected to be lower than 1980 to get hitched, lower than West Europe Divorce rate is expected to rise by 2030 Average age for women to have first child in 2030

news@irishmirro­r.ie

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