TWO IN FIVE couples who got married last year opted for a Catholic ceremony, figures from the Central Statistics Office show. 

There were 23,173 marriages in 2022 compared with 17,217 in 2021, an increase of 35%. 

This increase is reflective of the lifting of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and the resulting impact on marriage numbers in 2022. The overall number of marriages in 2022 exceeded pre-pandemic 2019 figures by 14%.

There were 22,555 opposite sex marriages and 618 same-sex marriages last year. 

In 2022, religious ceremonies accounted for 64% of all marriages.

There were 9,376 (40%) Catholic marriage ceremonies and 284 (1.2%) Church of Ireland ceremonies. The Spiritualist Union of Ireland performed 2,299 (9.9%) ceremonies and 2,986 (13%) couples opted for other religious ceremonies.

The majority of non-religious ceremonies were civil marriages which accounted for 26% (6,071) of all marriages. The remaining 2,157 (9.3%) couples had Humanist ceremonies.

The average age for brides and grooms remained unchanged in 2022 from 2021. The average age for brides was 35.4, while for grooms it remained 37.4 in 2022.

“The average age of men in an opposite-sex marriage was 37.4 years while the average age of men in a same-sex marriage was higher at 39.4 years. The average age of women in an opposite-sex marriage was 35.4 in 2022, while the comparable age for women in a same-sex marriage was 38.2 years,” CSO statistician Seán O’Connor said. 

July was the most popular months for both opposite and same sex marriages in 2022. January was the least favoured month to tie the knot for all couples.

“Friday and Saturday continue to be the most popular days to tie the knot for opposite-sex couples, while Friday, followed by Thursday were the most favoured days to wed for same-sex couples,” O’Connor said.

“These are unchanged from 2021 results. Sundays and Tuesdays were the least popular days of the week to marry for all couples.”