West Bank and Gaza had the highest marriage rate in the world as of 2018, with 10 marriages per every 1,000 population. Fiji followed directly with 9.8 marriages. Thereafter, Egypt and Bahamas counted 9.6 and 9.5 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants, ranking third and fourth, respectively. By contrast, Qatar, French Guiana, and Peru had the lowest marriage rates worldwide in that same year.

Qatar had the lowest marriage rate in the world as of 2018, with 1.4 marriages per every 1,000 population. French Guiana followed with one marriage more than Qatar (2.4). Thereafter, Peru and Venezuela counted 2.5 and 2.6 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants, ranking third and fourth, respectively. By contrast, West Bank and Gaza, Fiji, and Egypt had the highest marriage rates worldwide in that same year.

In 2016, crude marriage rates were highest in Kazakhstan which was estimated at around 9.9 marriages per thousand people. Crude marriage rates were highest in Vietnam in year 2000, amounting to around 12.7 marriages per thousand people.

Niger has the highest child marriage rate in the world among girls. According to the most recent data, in this West African country, more than three fourths of girls aged under 18 were married, with nearly 30 percent of them being younger than 15 years old. The Central African Republic, Chad, and Mali followed behind with rates ranging from 61 to 54 percent. This issue is globally spread, particularly in African countries. In many of these countries, the legal age to get married is lower for females than for males. In Niger and Chad, for instance, the legal age is 15 years for females and 18 for males. In Guinea, instead, the legal age for marriage is 17 for females and 18 for males. Child marriage is often related to poverty, with poor families choosing to marry away their girls both in order to earn money as a wedding gift and as this means fewer mouths to feed.

Cyprus had the highest marriage rate among member states of the European Union, at 8.9 marriages per 1,000 people. By contrast, Italy had the lowest marriage rate, at 1.6 marriages per 1,000 population.

In 2021, the marriage rate for all Benelux countries was very similar; in Belgium it was 3.5 percent and in the Netherlands it was 3.2 percent. For all countries, the marriage rates had been decreasing since 2010 and are around one percentage points lower than the marriage rates were in 2010.

The graph shows the share of women aged 20 to 24 who were first married or in union before they turned 18 in selected countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2016. In Nicaragua, the share was the highest and amounted to 41 percent. Fertility rate in Nicaragua was at 2.23 in 2015, i.e. that on average, Nicaraguan women bore 2.23 children in their lifetime (data as of 2015).

In 2023, approximately 4.8 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants were registered in China. The marriage rate increased from around six in 2002 to nearly ten in 2013 and declined again thereafter. Marriages in China The peak of the marriage rate in 2013 and the corresponding wave in the number of marriages is strongly related to a larger size of age cohorts between 20 and 35 during that time which is reflected in China’s age pyramid. However, marriage habits have also changed significantly over the last two decades. While the share of people that do not get married is generally increasing, there is a strong shift towards later marriage, with the share of people aged 30 or above that get married increasing from 18.7 percent in 2005 to 47.6 percent in 2022. At the same time, both the number of divorces as well as the number of remarriages also increased. Current developments The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant effect on the divorce rate in China, which fell by more than one third between 2019 and 2021. However, the effect on marriages was comparatively small. As larger age cohorts are now entering marriage age, the number of marriages might increase again in the upcoming years. However, the general change of marriage habits mentioned above will most likely go on in the future.

In 2022, the marriage rate in the United States stood at 6.2 per 1,000 people of the population. This is a decrease from 1990 levels, when the marriage rate was 9.8 marriages per 1,000 people. Marriage Marriage is a union that can legally, culturally, and financially bind two people. Marriage occurs between all genders, races, and cultures. Marriage is drastically different all around the world, due to the diversity of cultures and religions. Marriage can be recognized by a state, religious authority, or an organization. Typically viewed as contract, it brings people together through a multitude of avenues. A part of marriage is the wedding, for which couples can decide to partake in or not. Weddings are also incredibly diverse and vary in time, money, and customs. Marriage in the United States Marriage in the United States is viewed differently across all 50 states. The number of married couples in the United States has been steadily increasing since 1960. On the other hand, the divorce rate in the United States has decreased since 1990. Nevada was the state in 2021 that had the highest marriage rate in the United States, due to easy accessibility to get married there. In 2021, Nevada was also the state with the highest divorce rate in the country.

According to the 2020 UNIDOMO questionnaire, Portugal clearly led the list of European countries with the highest divorce rate per 100 marriages. With 91.5 divorces the Portuguese Republic led the list, followed by Spain and Luxembourg. All three countries boast a significantly higher share than the other European countries, each reporting a divorce rate over 80 divorces.

A different way to look at Portugal

While Portugal clearly has the most divorces per 100 marriages, looking at divorce rates per 1.000 inhabitants in other European countries alters the picture of the country as one unsettled by significant numbers of divorces. With nearly 1.7 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants Portugal has roughly the same divorce rate as Germany and the Netherlands. Interesting is furthermore that although marriages in Portugal tend to result in divorce lightly more often as in Luxembourg (80.3%), the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg experienced a 0.6 point higher divorce rate.

What about the rest of the World?

While compared with Latin American countries like Guatemala or Peru, ranked among the countries with the lowest divorce rates in the world, Luxembourg’s divorce rate seems excessive. However, when compared with divorce rates (per 1.000 inhabitants) of countries like the United States (2.7) or China (3.5) divorce rates from Luxembourg and Europe are not out of the ordinary.

In 2022, Nevada had the highest marriage rate in the United States, with 25.9 marriages per 1,000 residents. Hawaii had the second-highest marriage rate, at 14.4 marriages per 1,000 residents. The falling marriage rate Perhaps unsurprisingly, the marriage rate in the United States has fallen since 1990, although it has leveled off in the past decade. This means that fewer and fewer people are getting married than in years past, particularly as views about marriage have changed in the U.S. However, despite changing perceptions about marriage and a falling marriage rate, there were more married couples in the United States in 2021 than there were in 1960. First comes love, then comes marriage Weddings and marriage have changed in the United States in recent years as people have been staying single longer, and especially gay marriage and inter-racial marriage have become more socially acceptable. The changing face of America means that love and relationships are changing as well, and what is socially acceptable within a relationship will continue to change with it.

In 2019, Bangladesh had the highest prevalence of female child marriage across the Asia-Pacific region, as over 45 percent of girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 19 years in the country were married or had been married before. In contrast, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore all had female child marriage shares of below one percent.

In 2024, almost one in five young women were married before their 18th birthday worldwide. Sub-Saharan Africa had the largest share of girls married before the age of 18 but also the largest share of girls married before 15 (9.4 percent).

As of 2020, Sri Lanka had the lowest divorce rate in the world, with only 0.15 divorces per 1,000 population. Vietnam and Guatemala followed with 0.2 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants. On the other hand, West Bank & the Gaza Strip had the highest marriage rate in the world that year.

In 2023, 6.5 marriages were registered per 1,000 inhabitants in Russia, compared to 4.7 divorces per 1,000 population. The marriage rate in the country saw an increase compared to the previous year. In 2011, 9.2 marriages were registered per 1,000 Russians, which was the highest number recorded over the period under consideration. What do marriage and divorce rates mean? The crude marriage rate refers to the number of marriages per one thousand population, according to the United Nations Population Division. In total, around 946,000 marriages were registered in Russia in 2023, while the country’s population was estimated at 146.3 million in that year. Another indicator relevant to Russian demographics is the crude divorce rate, which is the number of divorces recorded in a year per 1,000 population, as defined by the United Nations Population Division. In total, nearly 684,000 divorces were registered in Russia in 2023. What do Russians think of marriage? In every age category, most Russians believed that being married and living in a family was most preferable in the society. However, the share of family and marriage supporters was the lowest among 18-to-24-year-olds, measuring at 60 percent. Both for men and women, the ideal age to get married was considered in a person’s twenties.

There were approximately 390,743 marriages taking place in Germany in 2022, the most in the European Union in that year. France had the second-highest number of marriages, at 241,831, followed by Italy at 189,140 marriages.

India has the largest number of child brides in the world. As of May 2020, it counted 15.6 million women aged 20 to 24 years who were married or in a partnership before the age of 18. Bangladesh and Nigeria followed with 4.4 million and 3.7 million young women who were married before turning 18.

In 2021, the number of marriages in Tunisia stood at 12.1 per 1,000 inhabitants. From 2014 onwards, the marriage rate decreased annually (except in 2021), concurrently with the decline in the total number of marriages celebrated in the country.

Every year, less and less Italians decide to walk down the aisle and join in the wedlock with their other half. In 2023, the country registered 3.1 marriages per 1,000 individuals, roughly one union less than in 2008. In 2020, the marriage rate dropped considerably due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching only 1.6 celebrations per 1,000 people. The region with the highest marriage rate in 2023 was Sicily, where 3.7 couples per 1,000 inhabitants got married. Brides and grooms always older Italians postpone to a later date their decision to tie the knot. Back in the 1990s, the average age of the Italian brides at marriage was 26.8 years, whereas in 2017 this figure was about 31 years. The average age of mothers at childbirth also increased in the last decades, augmenting almost by two years since 2002. In 2022, the mean age was 32.4 years. Various reasons of not getting married There are different motives why people decide not to get married. When asked about the reason they didn’t get married, the majority of Italian singles replied, that they did not find the right person. On the other hand, about 17 percent of individuals cohabiting together with their partner stated that they don’t believe in marriage, whereas roughly one-fourth of the respondents never felt the need to do it.

The percentage of married persons in France reached 42.5 percent in 2018. Ten years earlier the share of the married population in the country was of 47.8 percent. Since the mid-2000s the proportion of married couples in France has been declining. In 2018, the number of marriages in the country reached 235,000, compared to more than 278,000 in 2004. Marriage does not appear to be the preferred mode of union of French citizens, while the divorce rate remains high.

Less marriages, more divorces

If the share of married individuals in France is decreasing, the proportion of single and married French keeps rising. In 2018, almost nine percent of the French population was divorced, a proportion which was two percentage points lower in 2006. Divorce rates amounted to 55 per every 100 marriages in 2016, making France one of the European countries with the highest divorce rate. In the meantime, the share of single people is also gradually rising.

New relationships

It seems that marriage is not the most common union between two individuals anymore. Civil partnerships, which have been implemented in France since 1999, are getting quite popular. In 2017, more than 193,000 civil unions have been celebrated in the country, regardless of the genders of the two partners. Despite the legalization of gay marriage in 2013, the number of same-sex marriages keeps being rather low in France.