Irish marriage rates have fallen to the EU average, new figures [1] from the Central Statistics Office show. 
According to new data on marriage from 2010, Ireland now has a marriage rate of 4.5 per thousand people, which is roughly the same as the EU average of 4.4. This represents a fall from 4.9 in 2009 and from 7.4 in 1973.
The figures show that there were 20,594 marriages in 2010.
Ireland’s marriage rate has now been falling steadily since the 1970s. In 1973, we had a marriage rate of 7.4 per thousand. By 1980, that had fallen to 6.0 per thousand, and by 1990, we had a marriage rate of 5.1 per 1,000, which continued declining through the 1990s.
From 2000, however, there was an uptick, as our marriage rate hovered around five per thousand.
The marriage rate for 2010 is the lowest since 1998, according to the CSO.
We now have a lower marriage rate than Sweden, which has a marriage rate of 5.3 per thousand and Denmark, which has a marriage rate of 5.6 per thousand.
Finland, with a marriage rate of 5.6 and Lithuania, with a marriage rate of 5.7, also have higher marriage rates than Ireland
Conversely, Spain and Italy, with marriage rates of 3.6 marriages per thousand, are lower than Ireland’s.
The figures also show a decrease in the number of divorces from 2009. The Circut Court and High Court granted 3,113 divorces in 2010, a fall of 228, or seven per cent, from the previous year.
This is thought to be related to the recession.
Nearly a third of all marriages, 29pc, were civil marriages, which was unchanged from 2009. Just under 70pc (68pc) of these were first time marriages. Sixty seven percent of marriages were Catholic.
The vast majority of all marriages, 88pc were first time marriages for both bride and groom.
Twenty-two percent of first marriages were civil not religious.
The vast majority of second-time marriages were civil.