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.

How many married couples are in the U.S.? In 2023, there were 62.18 million married couples in the United States. This is an increase from 40.2 million married couples in 1960. Marriage in the U.S. While the number of married couples in the U.S. has increased in the past few decades, this could very well just be due to population change, since while the U.S. population has been increasing, the marriage rate has decreased significantly since 1990. In addition, the divorce rate has almost halved since 1990 despite concerns that more people are getting divorced than in years past. Same-sex marriage in the U.S. After years of advocacy, same-sex marriage became legal in the United States in June 2015. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal in a landmark ruling in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges. In 2015, a clear majority of Americans were in favor of the legalization of same-sex marriage, and approval has only been increasing in the years since.

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.

81 percent of the Silent generation were married between the age of 23 and 38. This is true for only 44 percent of Millennials.

Since the 1970s, the marriage rate for opposite-sex couples in England and Wales has declined considerably, with the marriage rate per thousand population falling from 84 to 20.3 for men between 1972 and 2022, and from 63.5 to 18.3 for women, during the same time period. Three spikes in the marriage rate can be seen in 1915, 1920 and 1940, all likely influenced by the impact of the First and Second World Wars. The drop in the marriage rate in 2020 can be attributed to the COVID-19 lockdowns.

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.

The marriage rate in the Republic of Ireland was four marriages per 1,000 population in 2023, compared with 4.5 in the previous year, and 1.9 in 2020, which was a low for the provided time period.

In 2022, Japan registered 4.1 new marriages per 1,000 inhabitants, less than half of the ten marriages per one thousand in 1970. The marriage rate shifted back to a downward trend after a slight increase in 2019.

The marriage rate in England and Wales, defined as the number of people marrying per 1,000 unmarried people in the population aged 16 and over, was 17.9 in 2019. Before 2020, which was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the lowest marriage rate in the provided time period.

In 2020, the marriage rate in California stood at 5.2 marriages per 1,000 of the population. This was an increase from the previous year, when the marriage rate in the state stood at 3.2 marriages per 1,000 of the population.

In 2021, the marriage rate in Massachusetts stood at 4.6 marriages per 1,000 residents. This was an increase from the previous year, when the marriage rate in the state stood at four marriages per 1,000 residents.

This statistic shows the crude marriage rate in Taiwan from 2000 to 2024. In 2024, approximately 5.26 couples per 1,000 people of the total population married in Taiwan.

From 1920 until 1970, marriage rates in the United States usually ranged between eight and eleven marriages per 1,000 population in most years. When looking at the marriage rate of unmarried women alone, rates generally ranged between 70 and 90 marriages per 1,000 unmarried woman. There were some periods of fluctuation, however, with the lowest marriage rates taking place during the Great Depression in the early-1930s, and the highest marriage rates coming after the Second World War in the late-1940s.

In 2021, the marriage rate in Texas stood at 5.8 marriages per 1,000 residents. This was an increase from the previous year, when the marriage rate in the state stood at 5.3 marriages per 1,000 residents.

In 2022, there were around 2.06 million marriages in the United States. This is an increase from the previous year, when about 1.99 million marriages were registered in the country. The divorce rate in the United States can be accessed here.

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.

Over the depicted time frame in Panama, the marriage rate remained stable until the pre-COVID pandemic period, reaching its lowest point in 2020 at 1.4. The following year witnessed a doubling of the rate, reaching a marriage rate of 3.

In 2023, South Korea recorded one of the lowest numbers of marriages since 1981, with only 193,657 couples getting married. The trend of shunning marriage has been particularly noticeable in recent years, with the number of marriages drastically decreasing by over 40 percent compared to ten years ago. Changing perceptions of marriage An increasing number of people in South Korea, particularly women, are choosing not to get married. According to a survey conducted in 2023, only around 30 percent of women saw marriage as a necessity, compared to almost 60 percent of men. The most common reasons for not getting married were a lack of financial resources and simply not seeing the need for it. Demographic challenges With more people remaining single and not having children, the birth rate in South Korea has dropped to the lowest in the world, reaching a record low of 0.72 births per woman in 2023. The government has tried to tackle the problem of population decline and aging through various measures, so far with little success.

In 2022, there were about 6.1 marriages per 1,000 residents in Australia. A decade before, the crude marriage rate was at the lower rate of 5.4 per 1,000 country residents.

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.