Press release by The Iona
Institute

Marriage
rate in Ireland has
plunged by 40pc in last 40 years

September 30,
2013  – New CSO figures out
today show that Ireland’s marriage rate is now only 4.3 per 1,000. This
means fewer couples in Ireland are
getting married than in Britain and
far fewer than in the US.

It also means our marriage rate
has plunged by more than 40pc since 1973, from 7.4 per 1,000 people per year to
4.3 in 2011.

Ireland’s marriage rate is now just below the EU average. It
is also lower than the UK rate of 4.5 per 1,000, which is the lowest on record
in that country and is far lower than the US rate of
6.8 per couple.

The sharp decline in our
marriage rate must be read in conjunction with the huge rise in cohabitation,
the sixfold increase in divorce and separation since 1986 and the fact that over
a third of children are now born outside of marriage.

Commenting on the figures,
David Quinn of The Iona Institute said: “Irish people need to abandon the idea
that the institution of marriage in this country is in good health. It isn’t.
Marriage is in sharp decline by every measure. We need to have a national debate
about whether this matters and what if anything we are going to do about
it.

He continued: “We should care
about what is happening, because marriage is especially beneficial from the
point of view of children and is also associated with lower levels of poverty.
People suffer when marriage goes into decline.” (For more information see note 2
below).

ENDS