Number of marriages and divorces in Bulgaria both decreased in 2020
There were 22 172 marriages in Bulgaria in 2020, a figure 7026 lower than that in 2019, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said on April 12 in an annual report on population processes.
The NSI said that in 2020, Bulgaria’s marriage rate – meaning the number of marriages per 1000 population – was 3.2.
Close to three quarters of the marriages were registered among people living in cities.
The mean age at first marriage in 2020 was 32.5 years for men and 29.4 for women.
Compared with 2019, the mean age at first marriage has increased by 0.5 years for men and by 0.3 years for women.
There were 9015 divorces in Bulgaria in 2020. This was 1844 fewer than in 2019.
About 78.5 per cent divorces were of people living in the cities.
The most frequently-cited grounds for divorce was mutual agreement – 64.8 per cent – followed by “incompatibility of temperament” (22.2 per cent) and “virtual parting” (11.3 per cent).
For 10.6 per cent of men and 9.6 per cent of women who divorced in 2020, the divorce was not the first one.
The NSI said that the average duration of a marriage before divorce in 2020 was 15.7 years.
The institute did not propose a reason for the reduced numbers of marriages and divorces in 2020, but the figures come against the background of the Covid-19 crisis, which led to restrictions on attendance at celebrations such as weddings, while also leading to some curtailments of the activities of courts.
(Photo: Kai Kuusik Greenbaum)
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