Close to 37 marriages took place last year in Portugal, 27,2% more than in the previous year, with the average age at first marriage being 35,1 years for men and 33,7 years for women.
Data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) state that the average age at marriage was 39,9 years for men and 37,4 years for women, a number that has been increasing.
According to data published today in INE's Vital Statistics, between 2013 and 2022, there was an increase of around five years in the average age at marriage and of around four years in the average age at first marriage, for both sexes.
Of the 36.952 marriages celebrated in Portugal in 2022 (7.895 or 27,2% more than in the previous year), 36.151 were between people of the opposite sex (28.508 in 2021) and 801 between people of the same sex (549 in 2021), of which 413 marriages between men and 388 marriages between women (287 and 262, respectively, in 2021).
Of the total number of marriages between people of the opposite sex, 9.662 (26,7%) were celebrated according to the Catholic rite, 27.175 (73%) in the civil form and 115 (0,3%) according to other religious forms.
In more than two thirds of marriages carried out in 2022, the bride and groom already shared a house (25.328 marriages), a proportion that, according to INE, has been “growing significantly” in recent years, registering an increase of 18,4 points percentages (pp) since, in 2013, for the first time it exceeded 50% (50,1% in 2013 against 68,5% in 2022).
Last year, the number of marriages celebrated recorded positive year-on-year variations in all months, with greater intensity in the first four months of the year.
“In the months of February and March, the number of marriages performed corresponded to, respectively, eight and four times the number of marriages performed in the same months of 2021, given the confinement measures imposed by the pandemic in the first months of 2021. the month in which the most weddings took place (5.165)”, highlights INE.
The data also highlight that last year there were 49.230 dissolutions of marriages due to the death of the spouse, which represents a decrease of 1,4% compared to 2021 (49.908 dissolutions), which resulted in 14.385 widowers and 34.845 widows, which reflects the higher life expectancy for women.
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