Average Bulgarian marriage lasts 15.3 years
The average duration of a marriage in Bulgaria before divorce was 15.3 years in 2015, according to the National Statistical Institute (NSI).
There was an increase in the number of marriages in 2015, a total of 3124 more than in 2014, adding up to a total of 27 720, the NSI said in an annual report on demographics in Bulgaria.
But while the marriage rate was higher in 2015 than in 2014, it had dropped in comparison with 2001, the NSI said.
Three-quarters of marriages were among the urban population.
On average in 2015, Bulgarian men got married (not to each other, which the constitution renders impossible) at the age of 30.9 years, and women at the age of 27.8.
The highest rates of marriage were in the districts of Dobrich, in north-eastern Bulgaria, and in Kurdzhali, in south-eastern Bulgaria.
At the other end of the scale, the marriage rate was lowest in the Rhodope region Smolyan and in Vratsa in north-western Bulgaria.
There were 10 483 divorces in Bulgaria in 2015, a total of 101 fewer than in 2014, the NSI said.
Just more than 82 per cent of divorces were among the urban population.
Most divorces in Bulgaria, 64.1 per cent, were by mutual agreement, with the next reason, in legal terminology, “incompability of temperament”, 27.3 per cent, and thirdly, “virtual parting”, 6.3 per cent, according to the NSI.
(Photo: Kai Kuusik-Greenbaum)