A date in spring was the one most Australian couples picked to tie the knot in 2023.
More women than men in same-sex relationships have been getting married over the past five years.
And marriages in Australia are lasting longer than they did five years ago.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) latest look at marriages and divorces has been released — and here is some of what it found.
Australia’s favourite wedding dates
Australia’s favourite date to get married in 2023 was 11 November, with just shy of 1,800 marriage registrations on that date.
Next came 25 March, with just over 1,700 registrations.
The least chosen date was 31 January, with only 35 couples tying the knot on this day.
Data over the past few years shows Australians prefer to get married in spring or autumn and typically avoid the Christmas and Easter holidays.
A dip following a record-high
The ABS data also indicates that in 2023, 118,439 marriages were registered, bringing the number closer to the range over the past five years.
That’s down from 127,161 in 2022, when there was a spike in marriage registrations after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in late 2021.
James Eynstone-Hinkins, ABS’ head of marriages data, said: “Marriage numbers have dropped 6.9 per cent from the record high of 127,161 in 2022, after two years when nuptial plans were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, marriage registration numbers fell sharply due to public health and safety restrictions, including lockdowns.
“It’s clear many couples needed to postpone their plans to get married during the pandemic, and this is seen not only in numbers but in higher median ages at marriage,” Eynstone-Hinkins said.
These numbers went as low as 78,989 in 2020 and rose marginally to 89,164 in 2021.
The median age for men to get married has increased to 32.9 years from 32.5 years in 2022. For women, it’s now 31.2 years, up from 30.9 years in 2022.
Same-sex trends
Amongst same-sex couples, more females than males have been tying the knot. This pattern can be seen over the past five years in the latest ABS data.
In 2023, 2,619 female marriages of the same gender took place as compared to 1,735 male marriages of the same gender.
In 2022, these numbers stood at 2,667 and 1,767 respectively.
The year 2019 showed the widest gap between female couples who got married (3,245) and male couples (2,260).
Same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia in December 2017.
Australia’s relationship with divorce
ABS data from the last five years shows Australians remain married for longer.
The median duration of marriage to divorce has shown a consistent increase and currently sits at 13 years for the year 2023, when 48,700 divorces were granted by Australian courts.
In 2019, the median duration of marriage to divorce was 12.3 years, when 49,116 couples divorced.
The number of divorces granted annually over the past five years appears to be stabilising around the 49,000-a-year mark, except for 2021 when 56,244 marriages ended in divorce.
