NON-RELIGIOUS MARRIAGES are continuing to outnumber Catholic marriages last year, with over a third of couples opting for a non-religious ceremony.

According to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), 43.3% of couples who had a wedding last year opted for a non-religious ceremony. This is a slight drop from 2020, where 49.8% of marriages were non-religious.

This compares to Catholic marriage ceremonies accounting for 39% of all marriages in 2021, which is slightly higher than the 2020 figure of 34.6% but lower than 2019, 2018 and 2017.

Compared to equivalent marriage figures from 1980, the number of Catholic marriages is down significantly (96%) while the number of non-religious marriage ceremonies has risen exponentially (2%).

In 2021, there were a total of 17,217 marriages compared to just 9,523 in 2020. The 2020 figure is reduced likely due to Covid-19 regulations which put significant restrictions on wedding ceremonies.

A majority of the marriages that took place in 2021 were opposite-sex marriages at 16,717 in total.

The CSO reported that there were also 500 same-sex marriages in 2021. Of these, 252 were male same-sex marriages and 248 were female same-sex marriages.

The most popular month for a marriage in 2021 was August, with one in seven marriages taking place in that month, while the least popular month was January.

One in three marriages took place in the last three months of 2021.