KEY POINTS:
Love and marriage is still going strong in New Zealand, with the number of marriages and civil unions remaining steady and the divorce rate declining, Statistics New Zealand says.
In total, 21,500 couples said "I do" last year, an increase on the 20,800 average for the last decade, statistician Geoff Bascand said.
The most popular day to walk down the aisle was Saturday, and the most popular date was February 24 - with 610 marriages celebrated.
Summer, as always was the most popular season, with 43 per cent of weddings being held in the first three months of the year.
And despite winter months traditionally not being popular for weddings, last July saw an increase of couples marrying, with 290 attracted to the lucky 07/07/07 date.
About 70 die-hard romantic couples wed on Valentine's Day, which last year fell on a Wednesday.
Today's marrying couples are waiting a lot longer than their parents, with last year's median age at 29.9 and 28.1 years for men and women respectively.
In 1971 men and women wed on average at the tender ages of 23 and 20.8 years respectively.
Last year also saw 316 couples celebrate a civil union, made up of 253 same sex unions - 103 male and 150 female - and 63 opposite sex unions.
There were 77 civil unions registered overseas, bringing the total to 393 registrations.
There have been 1249 civil unions since laws legalising them came into force in April 2005, made up of 1016 same sex unions, 231 opposite sex unions and two transfers from marriage.
The total number of divorces for last year numbered 9600, slightly down on the average annual rate of 10,000 for the last decade.
Divorces hit an all-time high of 12,400 in 1982 after marriages were allowed to dissolve on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.
Mr Bascand noted that about one third of New Zealanders who married in 1982 had divorced before their silver wedding anniversary - 25 years.
- NZPA
