Marriage numbers stay steady

The number of people tying the knot in New Zealand remained steady last year.

Figures released by Statistics New Zealand show 20,500 people had marriages registered in 2005, in line with the average over the past decade.

A general trend towards delaying marriage, a growth in de facto unions, and an increasing number of Kiwis living the single life has contributed to a drop in the number of couples tying the knot.

The general marriage rate (marriages per 1000 unmarried adults) was 13.2 in 2005, down from 16.9 in 1995.

The latest rate is less than a third of the peak level of 45.5 per 1000, recorded in 1971, Government statistician Brian Pink said.

The proportion of marriages where one or both partners had previously been married has remained stable at around 36 percent over the last decade.

Last year the number of remarriages was 7300, compared with 4400 in 1971. Around 90 percent of those remarrying in 2005 had been divorced.

The Family Court granted 10,000 marriage dissolution orders in 2005, consistent with the annual average for the last decade.

The divorce rate in 2005 (divorces per 1000 estimated existing marriages) was 12.4.

An analysis of divorce rates by year of marriage shows around one third of New Zealanders who married in 1980 had divorced before their silver wedding anniversary (25 years).

Nearly half of all marriages (45 percent) that dissolved in 2005 involved children under 17 years of age.

Of those divorces involving children, there was an average of 1.8 children per divorce, with little change in this figure during the past decade.

- NZPA, NEWSTALK ZB