Fewer marriages, fewer divorces in EU in 2023, rise in births outside marriage
About 1.8 million marriages and an estimated 0.7 million divorces took place in the European Union in 2023, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on March 21.
These figures may be expressed as 4.0 marriages for every 1 000 persons (in other words the crude marriage rate) and 2.0 divorces for every 1000 persons (in other words the crude divorce rate), Eurostat said.
Since 1964 (the first year for which data are available), the crude marriage rate in the EU has declined by 50 per cent in relative terms (from 8.0 per 1 000 persons in 1964 to 4.0 in 2023).
The downward trend was interrupted by some intermediate peaks in 1989 (6.4), 2000 (5.2), 2007 (5.0) and 2018 (4.5).
“The substantial decrease observed between 2019 (4.3 per 1 000 persons) and 2020 (3.2) in the crude marriage rate could be interpreted as an effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, representing a fall of almost 25 per cent,” Eurostat said.
Since then, and from 2021 onwards, a significant uptick can be observed in the crude marriage rate reaching 4.0 in 2023.
Over the same extended period, the crude divorce rate has essentially doubled, increasing from 0.8 per 1 000 persons in 1964 to 2.0 in 2023.
The divorce rate peaked in 2006 (2.1) and has been declining slightly since then.
“Part of this increase may be due to the fact that divorce was legalised in several EU countries during this period (for example, in Italy, Spain, Ireland and Malta),” Eurostat said.
“The beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have impacted the divorce rate as well, as can be seen by the slight drop taking place between 2019 and 2020.”
Nevertheless, the decrease in the crude divorce rate was far less pronounced (about 10 per cent) than the one observed for the crude marriage rate, Eurostat said, adding that since then that value has remained almost unchanged.
In 2023, the highest crude marriage rates were in Romania (5.8 marriages per 1000 persons), Latvia (5.6) and Hungary (5.2).
The lowest crude marriage rates were reported in Slovenia (3.0 marriages per 1 000 persons), Italy (3.1) and Bulgaria (3.4). Between 2022 and 2023 the indicator decreased in 20 of the available EU countries and was constant in two (Luxembourg and Portugal).
For divorces, in 2023 the lowest crude rates in the EU were registered in Slovenia (1.0 divorces per 1 000 persons), Croatia (1.1) and Romania (1.2) (Table 2).
By contrast, divorce rates were highest in Latvia (2.8 divorces per 1 000 persons), Lithuania (2.5) and Finland (2.1).
Between 2022 and 2023 the indicator decreased in seven of the EU countries for which data are available, was constant in nine EU countries and increased in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Finland and Austria.
The proportion of live births outside marriage has shown an increasing trend in the past decades, more than doubling since 1993 (17.7 per cent) when these data were first available in the EU.
In 2023 this proportion was estimated at 41.1 per cent (Table 3), meaning that 58.9 per cent of children were born inside marriage.
“This share reflects changes in patterns of family formation alongside the more traditional pattern where children were born within marriage,” Eurostat said.
Extramarital births occur in non-marital relationships, among cohabiting couples, to lone parents and in registered partnerships, the statistics agency said.
Extramarital births outnumbered births inside marriage in six of the EU countries for which data are available, notably Bulgaria (where 59.7 per cent of births occurred outside marriage), Portugal (59.5 per cent), France (58.5 per cent), Sweden (57.4 per cent), Slovenia (56.5 per cent) and Estonia (53.8 per cent).
Greece was at the other end of the spectrum where more than 90 per cent of births occurred within marriage.
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