The Official Statistics on Weddings
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes information on the number of marriages each year, the age of the brides and grooms, where they were born, whether it is a first marriage, whether the service was conducted by a religious or civil celebrant, whether couples lived together before marriage, and a whole heap of other information, including information by State and Territory.
The latest figures show that in 2007, there were 116,322 registered marriages, representing an increase of 2,100 over 2006. This is the highest number of marriages registered in a year since 1990.
Although the number of marriages is similar to that of twenty years ago, the population has increased over this time, which means that the proportion of people getting married, the crude marriage rate, is lower than it was twenty years ago. In 2007, the crude marriage rate was 5.5 marriages per 1,000 people, compared with 7.1 marriages per 1,000 people in 1988. Between 1988 and 2001, the crude marriage rate declined from 7.1 to 5.3, however, since 2001, there has been a slight upward trend to 5.5.
The age at which people get married has been increasing gradually over the past twenty years, and in 2007 the median age was 31.6 years for men and 29.3 years for women. Less than one per cent of people married in 2007 were 19 or younger.
The statistics show that an increasing proportion of couples live together before marriage, and more people are opting for a civil celebrant rather than a religious ceremony. In 2007, couples who lived together before marriage were more likely to have a civil ceremony than those who lived apart, with 70.0% of couples living together married in a civil ceremony, compared with 39.4% of those who lived apart.
Civil marriages have outnumbered religious ceremonies since 1999 when over half of all marriages were performed by civil celebrants. In 2007, 62.9% of marriages were performed by civil celebrants. For marriages performed by ministers of religion in 2007, the most common rites used were Catholic, followed by Anglican.
March was the most popular month for weddings in 2007, with more than 15,000 performed, followed by November and October with more than 12,000 each month. August was the least popular, with less than 6,000 marriages taking place in that month.