The drop is largely linked to the Covid-19 epidemic according to the institute.
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The number of marriages celebrated in 2020 fell by 31.2% compared to 2019 due to confinement and the health crisis, according to an INSEE study published on Friday February 12. This makes the rate “the weakest since the end of the Second World War“, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.
In 2020, 154,600 marriages were celebrated in France. The period of confinement, linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, from mid-March to mid-May 2020 led to a “stopping wedding celebrations”, prohibited except for very specific derogations. During the first confinement, only 538 marriages were celebrated, against more than 25,000 over the period from March 17 to May 10, 2019.
A total of 150,000 marriages united couples of different sexes and 4,600 couples of the same sex. The average age at marriage, which has been increasing for more than 20 years, increased further in 2020: it reached 36.7 years for women marrying a man, compared to 36.3 years in 2019 and 39.3 years for men marrying a woman, compared to 38.8 years in 2019, specifies INSEE. For same-sex couples, the average age at marriage in 2020 was 44.4 for men and 38.6 for women.