THE LATEST FIGURES from the Central Statistic Office (CSO) shows there has been a 3.9 per cent decline in marriages from 2010 to 2011.
There were 20,594 couples married in 2010, while there was 19,855 marriages registered in 2011.
The 2011 marriage rate is the lowest rate recorded since 1998 when the recorded rate was 4.5 per 1,000 of the population.
A breakdown of the figures shows that the oldest grooms in the country can be found in Waterford City.
The average groom in Waterford is aged 36.1 years, while the oldest brides were found in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown with the highest average age recorded at 33.7 years old.
The youngest grooms in the country can be found in Monaghan. The records show the lowest average age for a groom was at 33.2 years, while Donegal had the lowest average age for brides at 30.9 years.
Drop in divorce rate
The divorce rate in Ireland has also declined. There were 2,819 divorces granted by the Circuit Court and the High Court in 2011. This was a decrease of 294 or 9 per cent on the 2010 figure.
While the marriage and divorce rate is seeing a downturn, the age in which Irish people are getting married is on the rise.
The average age of the grooms getting married in 2011 was 34.6 years, while the average bride was aged 32.5. This is a rise of 0.5 from 2010 figures.
In almost 64 per cent of marriages, the groom was older than the bride across all age groups except in the case of grooms under 25, where the bride was older in 43 per cent of marriages.
In 2011, almost 3 per cent of grooms were under the age of 25 and 35 per cent of grooms were aged 35 and over on their wedding day. For brides, 6 per cent were under the age of 25 and almost 24 per cent were aged 35 and over on their wedding day.
Marrying within your county
The records show that Irish people don’t want to travel far to find their other half, with the majority of marriages taking place between people who are from the same area.
Over 92 per cent of people in Waterford marry people from Waterford, while over 90 per cent of people from Wicklow and Laois also marry people from the same locality.
Only 73 per cent of Leitrim grooms married brides living in Leitrim, while 73 per cent of Monaghan brides married grooms residing in Monaghan.
Over 88 per cent of marriages were first time marriages. July was the most popular month for marriage in 2011, while January was the least popular month to tie the knot with 535 marriages occurring during that month in 2011.
The most popular days to get married were on a Friday and Saturday with 7 out of 10 marriages occurring on these days. Sunday was the least popular day to wed with only 1,77 couples choosing this day to wed.
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