New Zealanders wary of marriage vows

When it comes to marriage, more and more New Zealanders are saying "I don't".

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.

Figures released yesterday by Statistics New Zealand for 2005 show that while the number of marriages has remained relatively stable, the marriage rate has dropped.

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.

Last year there were 20,500 marriages registered.

This figure is in line with the annual average number of marriages (20,600) over the past decade, and compares with an annual average of 25,200 during the period 1966-1975.

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

Last year, the number of remarriages was 7300, compared with 4400 in 1971. Around 90 per cent 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 per cent) that dissolved in 2005 involved children under 17.

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