Covid likely cause of sharp drop in marriages in 2020

The number of marriages, civil unions, and divorces fell sharply in 2020, Stats NZ said today.

"Last year, 16,779 New Zealand residents celebrated a marriage or civil union," population estimates and projections manager Hamish Slack said.

"Marriages and civil unions have decreased over the last couple of years, down from 19,071 in 2019 and 20,949 in 2018, but with a sharper drop in 2020 than in previous years, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic."

There was a noticeable drop in marriages coinciding with COVID-19 alert level 4. During the second quarter (April-June 2020) there were only 1,278 marriages and civil unions, compared with 3,957 in 2019. However, during the other three quarters there were slightly more marriages per quarter in 2020 compared with 2019.

The rate of marriages per 1000 people eligible to marry has dropped to its lowest rate of 8.3 in 2020. This is likely the result of the drop in number of marriages and the continuing population increase. The peak marriage rate was in 1971 with 45.5 couples tying the knot per 1000 eligible people, and has been trending downwards since.

Divorces

Married couples in New Zealand are required to be separated for at least two-years prior to applying for a divorce, which means the effect of COVID-19 on divorces cannot be determined yet.

After a rise in the number of couples granted a divorce in 2019 (8,388 divorces, compared with 7,455 in 2018), the number dropped to 7,707 in 2020. This continues the general downward trend in divorces since the peak in 1982.

In 2020 the divorce rate was 7.6 per 1000 married couples, compared with an average of 8.4 over the previous five years.

Sharp drop in marriages for overseas residents

The impact of COVID-19 border closures was reflected in the sharp drop in marriages and civil unions for overseas residents in New Zealand. In 2020, only 1,248 marriages and civil unions were registered to overseas residents, down from 2,889 in 2019 and 3,120 in 2018.

For the overseas residents that did marry in New Zealand in 2020, 90 percent of these marriages took place in the months of January, February, and March, before alert level 4 restrictions came into place in late March.

Only 96 of the marriages and civil unions registered to overseas residents were for same-sex couples. This made-up about 20 percent of all same-sex couples marrying or forming a civil union in 2020. This is down from 264 overseas same-sex couples in 2019, or 39 percent of all same-sex couples. In 2018, 381 overseas marriages were same-sex couples, making up 43 percent of all same-sex couples.