Marriage falling out of favour

The number of marriages in 2019 dropped to its lowest level in nearly 60 years.

In 2019, 19,071 Kiwi couples celebrated their marriage or civil union, according to Stats NZ.

‘‘This is down from 20,949 in 2018, and from 27,201 at its peak in 1971,’’ population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said.

Seventy-two per cent of marriiages in 2019 were first marriages for both partners. This was a similar proportion to the past few decades but lower than before 1980.

‘‘While the number of marriages has been around 20,000 over the last few decades, the New Zealand population is increasing, meaning declining marriage rates,’’ Islam said.

The general marriage rate dropped to a record low in 2019. Only 10 couples per 1000 people eligible to marry (unmarried people aged 16 years and over) did so last year. This was less than half of the rate of 30 years ago and follows a general decline since the peak in 1971.

Although there was a drop in marriages, people were still becoming partners.

The 2018 Census showed 61 per cent of the adult population was either married or in a de facto relationship. This was similar to the 60 per cent of adults who were partnered in the 1986 Census.

Provisional data released yesterday included marriages for the March 2020 quarter. Although the number of marriages during this period was trending downwards, there wasn’t a significant drop as a result of Covid-19.

In terms of divorces, there was a small increase in the number of couples granted a divorce in 2019.

There were 8388 divorces, up from an average of 8075 in the previous five years. However, the divorce rate in 2019, of 8.6 divorces per 1000 estimated marriages, was the same as the average of the previous five years.

Divorces were generally trending downwards, Stats NZ said.

The chance of a marriage ending in divorce within 10 years has also dropped, to about 15 per cent.