Marriages in 2004 decrease by 1.9 percent

There were 582,281 marriages solemnized in 2004 (Table 1). This marked a decrease of 1.9 percent from the 593,553 marriages reported in 2003.

Of the total marriages, 92,921 or 16.0 percent occurred in the National Capital Region (NCR), followed by that in Calabarzon at 76,800 or 13.2 percent and Central Luzon’s 72,861 or 12.5 percent.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) recorded the least number of marriages with 2,624 or 0.5 percent of the total registered marriages in the country. This marked a substantial increase of 27.5 percent from 2,058 registered marriages in the region in 2003.

Further, Western Visayas had the highest decrease in marriages from 2003 to 2004 at 14.0 percent, followed by the decrease in NCR and Davao at 7.7 percent and 5.0 percent, respectively.

Among provinces, Negros Occidental had the highest decrease in the number of marriages in the period under review, from 18,132 to 10,597 (- 41.6%).

Crude marriage rate in 2004 is at 7.0

The crude marriage rate (CMR), the rate at which couples are marrying, was 7.0 per thousand population in 2004. This translated to about 1,591 marriages a day. This was less compared to that of 2003’s 1,626 marriages a day.

Cagayan Valley had the highest CMR with 9.0, followed by Central Luzon with 8.6. The least CMR was noted in ARMM with only 0.9 or about one per thousand population.

April is the most favored month for marriages

For the first time in five years, April turned out with the most number of marriages, thus becoming the most favored month for marriages in 2004 with a total of 65,168 marriages or an average of 2,172 a day.

The second highest number of registered marriages was in January. Ranked third last year, January moved one step higher with 65,150 recorded marriages .

The month of May came in third after dominating in the previous four consecutive years (2000-2003) with 64,548 registered marriages. It had a daily average of 2,082.

November seemed to be a gloomy month after registering the least number of marriages (27,555) and the lowest daily average of 919 marriages.

Women marry earlier than men

The median age for brides and grooms were 24.7 and 27.4 years, respectively, indicating that women tend to marry earlier than men.

A total of 228,936 or 39.3 percent of the brides belonged to age group 20-24 years. On the other hand, 191,708 or 32.9 percent of the grooms were aged 25-29 years.

The number of teenage brides (77,038) or those 18-19 years of age was four times greater than the number of teenage grooms (18,246).

Moreover, the recorded marriages of grooms 50 years old and over numbered 19,707 while for brides it was 8,812. This suggests that in this age group, most brides were younger than the grooms.

Most marriages are solemnized under civil rites

Marriages solemnized under civil rites (276,233 or 47.4%) were more than the number of marriages solemnized in Catholic churches (212,236 or 36.4%). This was followed by the marriages solemnized under other religious rites (90,122 or 15.5%).

Marriages under Islam and tribal rites comprised only 0.4 percent (2,108) and 0.2 percent (1,118), respectively, of total registered marriages.

Most brides marry for the first time

More brides (577,593 or 99.2%) than grooms (570,609 or 98.0%), were married for the first time. Most marriages (568,006 or 97.5%) were between single brides and grooms.

Remarriage was more common among grooms (11,499 or 2.0%) than among brides (4,505 or 0.8%). Male divorcees who remarried numbered 5,928 or (1.0%). This was much higher than the 440 (0.1%) among female divorcees. Further, remarriage was more common among widowers (5,530 or 1.0%) than widows (4,059 or 0.7%).