Both sexes, it would seem, are in no huge rush.
That’s what figures released in a report on Marriages and Civil Partnerships in 2016 by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Thursday suggest, with the average age of both brides and grooms in Ireland having increased in the last 12 months.
The average age for grooms in opposite sex marriages in Ireland rose to 35.7, the highest figure to date, while brides in opposite sex marriages had an average age of 33.8.
Both figures showed a slight increase on the corresponding figure for 2015, when the average age was 35.3 and 33.2 for grooms and brides respectively.
The average age of males and females in same sex marriages in Ireland, meanwhile, was significantly higher, with figures from the 1,056 same sex marriages in 2016 (606 male, 450 female) showing that the average age of females was 41, slightly higher than the male figure of 40.5.
2016 is the first 12-month period for which same sex marriage statistics are available in Ireland.
The CSO figures revealed that July and August were the most popular months and January and February the least popular months to get married, with Fridays and Saturdays remaining the most popular days to tie the knot.
There were 21,570 opposite sex marriages in 2016 (slightly down on the 2015 figure of 22,025), with the majority (53.7%) taking place in the Catholic Church, compared to civil marriages (28.5%), humanist association (6.8%), spiritualist union (4.6%), other religious (4.9%) and Church of Ireland (1.6%).
For more information, check out the detailed CSO report here.
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