Number of marriages in Bulgaria rose 20% in 2021 y/y
There were 26 620 marriages registered in Bulgaria in 2021, an increase of 20.06 per cent compared with the number in 2020, according to figures posted by the National Statistical Institute (NSI).
However, the number of marriages in Bulgaria had dropped significantly in 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 crisis.
There were 22 172 marriages in Bulgaria in 2020, compared with 29 198 in 2019, 28 961 in 2018 and 28 593 in 2017, according to the NSI’s online archive.
An NSI report released on April 29 said that in 2021, Bulgaria’s marriage rate – meaning the number of marriages per 1000 population – was 3.9‰.
Nearly three quarters of the total marriages number (19 175) were registered among urban population.
The mean age at first marriage in 2021 was 32.8 years for males and 29.8 for females, the NSI said.
Compared to the year 2020, the mean age at first marriage increased by 0.3 years for males and 0.4 for females.
The NSI said that 85.5 per cent of females and 84.8 per cent of males had married for the first time in 2021.
The marriage rate was highest in the districts of Razgrad (5.6‰), Silistra (4.9‰), and Dobrich (4.7‰) and lowest in the districts of Pernik (2.4‰), Smolyan (2.5‰), and Kyustendil (2.7‰).
There were 10 021 divorces in Bulgaria in 2021, a total of 1006 more than in 2020.
Again, the number of divorces in Bulgaria in 2020 was lower than the average for the past five years, as the work of courts of law was hampered by the Covid-19 crisis.
The NSI’s online archive showed that in 2017, there were 10 411 divorces in Bulgaria, in 2018 a total of 10 596, in 2019 there were 10 859 and in 2020, a total of 9015.
The NSI said of the divorces in Bulgaria in 2021, the largest number – 65.5 per cent – were by “mutual agreement”, 21.7 per cent by “incompatibility of temperament” and 10.8 per cent “virtual parting”.
The divorce was not the first one for 10 per cent of the women and 10.8 per cent of the men.
Of the marriages that ended in divorce in 2021, the average duration was 15.5 years, the NSI said.
(Photo: Kai Kuusik Greenbaum)
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