Stats NZ has today revealed the number of couples that married, entered civil unions, and divorced in 2023. Photo / Getty Images
Stats NZ has today revealed the number of couples that married, entered civil unions, and divorced in 2023. Photo / Getty Images
New data from Statistics New Zealand has shown that the number of marriages, civil unions and divorces in New Zealand is continuing to decrease, while the age at which Kiwis are getting married and divorced is gradually going up.
So, how many people tied the knot last year compared to 2022 and earlier? How many chose to divorce last year? And what else does the data tell us about what marriage looks like in 2024?
How many Kiwis got married in 2023?
According to Stats NZ, there were 18,744 marriages and civil unions registered by New Zealand residents in 2023 - a slight drop from 18,858 in 2022.
Of that number, 13,827 were first-time marriages or civil unions, and 4911 were remarriages or civil unions.
In 2023, the general marriage rate was 9.0 marriages and civil unions per 1000 people 16 years old and over who were not previously married or in a civil union. In 2022, that rate was 9.3.
In the years since 1971, the number of couples tying the knot or entering into a civil union has markedly dropped from 27,201 to today’s numbers.
How many Kiwi couples divorced in 2023?
In 2023, 7995 couples were granted a divorce in Aotearoa.
That’s slightly higher than in 2022, when 7593 couples were divorced - but it’s important to know the number of divorces and the divorce rate have been slowly decreasing since early in the 2000s.
Last year, the divorce rate - the number of divorces for every 1000 married or civil union couples - was 7.6, compared with a rate of 7.4 in 2022.
Are Kiwis getting married later in life?
Last year, the median - the middle, rather than the average - age of a Kiwi getting married or going into a civil union for the first time was 30.4 for women and 31.6 for men.
Ten years ago, those median ages sat at 27.7 for women and 29.5 for men, showing an increase since 2003. In 1971, the median age of a Kiwi woman getting married for the first time was 20.8 and was 23.0 for men.
According to Stats NZ, the median age for all marriages - not just first marriages - has been gradually increasing since the early noughties.
It follows that the age at which Kiwis are getting divorced has also increased over the years.
In 2023, the median age at divorce was 48.1 for men and 45.5 for women, while back in 2003, the median age was 42.5 for men and 40.1 for women.
What does this mean for us?
Kiwi divorce coach Bridgette Jackson, of Equal Exes, says the data shows marriages and civil unions are yet to bounce back after the “sharp decline” in 2020, when countless weddings were delayed due to Covid-19 restrictions.
For many New Zealand couples in 2024, a wedding isn’t necessarily a priority, she explains - they may choose to focus on their careers and spend their hard-earned cash on travel or saving for a home instead.
“The pattern we are seeing in general is couples entering into a long-term committed relationship at an older age and not getting married,” she tells the NZ Herald.
Jackson says that Equal Exes is seeing “multiple couples who have mutually decided to amicably separate” rather than divorcing.
“There is a pattern where, as an amicable separation, they are not in a hurry, or it is not a priority to finalise their separation with a divorce,” she explains. “Many are happy to be at the point that they are and haven’t felt the need to yet engage lawyers for the final stage.”
Bridgette Jackson of Equal Exes is a certified divorce and separation coach in New Zealand.
In 2024, Jackson is seeing more and more clients in the “silver separation” category - Kiwi couples who married young and have decided to split decades later.
She notes that the Stats NZ data does not take into account de-facto relationships starting and ending.
“There is a greater number of couples deciding to enter into a de-facto relationship for a variety of reasons but they are not captured. Without them we are not able to see clear pattern of couples entering a committed partnership and then those that separate and break up a household.
“I believe we should be able to see statistics on de-facto relationships, as official figures from Statistics NZ.”
In 2022, Jackson told the NZ Herald that Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions would continue to have an impact on relationships and households along with rising house prices and the cost of living.
