By CAI U. ORDINARIO
BUSINESS MIRROR Reporter
The number of Filipinos getting married, particularly those who seal their vows in church and in other religious rites, has declined, according to data recently released by the National Statistics Office (NSO).
The NSO said that in 2004 there were 582,281 marriages solemnized which represented a 1.9-percent decline from the 593,553 marriages reported in 2003.
The crude marriage rate (CMR), or the rate at which couples are marrying, was seven per thousand population in 2004. This translated to about 1,591 marriages a day, less than the 1,626 marriages a day in 2003.
Furthermore, the NSO said marriages solemnized in civil rites that reached 276,233 or 47.4 percent of the total was more than the number of marriages solemnized in Catholic churches—212,236 or 36.4 percent of the total.
The NSO said marriages solemnized under other religious rites (90,122) was only 15.5 percent of the total, while marriages under Islam and tribal rites comprised only 0.4 percent or around 2,108 and 0.2 percent or 1,118, respectively, of total registered marriages.
Of the total marriages in the country, 92,921 or 16 percent occurred in the National Capital Region (NCR), followed by those in Calabarzon at 76,800 or 13.2 percent and Central Luzon’s 72,861 or 12.5 percent.
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) recorded the least number of marriages with 2,624 or 0.5 percent of the total registered marriages in the country. This, the NSO said, marked a substantial increase of 27.5 percent from 2,058 registered marriages in the region in 2003.
Meanwhile, Western Visayas posted the steepest decline in marriages from 2003 to 2004 at 14 percent, followed by the decrease in NCR and Davao at 7.7 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
Among provinces, Negros Occidental had the highest decrease in the number of marriages during the period to 10,597, or a decline of 41.6 percent from 18,132 in 2003.
On the other hand, NSO data showed that “June brides†and the “Marry Month of May†are no longer in fashion among Filipino couples scheduling their weddings. Instead, more Filipinos are getting hitched during the peak of the summer season, April.
Data showed that for the first time in five years, April turned out to be the most favored month for marriages with a total of 65,168 marriages, or an average of 2,172 a day in 2004.
The second-highest number of registered marriages was in January with 65,150 marriages; while the month of May, the top marrying month for four consecutive years, only had 64,548 marriages or an average of 2,082 per day.
November, the NSO said, seemed to be a gloomy month, registering the least number of marriages with 27,555 and the lowest daily average of 919 marriages.
Meanwhile, data also showed that more women marry earlier than men. The median age for brides and grooms were 24.7 and 27.4 years, respectively.
A total of 228,936 or 39.3 percent of all the brides were aged 20 to 24 years while 191,708 or 32.9 percent of the grooms were aged 25 to 29 years.
Further, NSO data show that the number of teenage brides or those 18 to 19 years of age was four times greater than the number of teenage grooms. There were around 77,038 teenage brides while there were about 18,246 teenage grooms.
“The recorded marriages of grooms 50 years old and over numbered 19,707 while for brides it was 8,812. This suggests that in this age group, most brides are younger than the grooms,†the NSO added.
NSO data also showed that many Filipino brides are getting married for the first time. There were around 577,593 or 99.2 percent of the total number of brides getting married for the first time, while there were only 570,609 grooms tying the knot for the first time.
Further, the NSO said remarriage was more common among grooms than brides. Data showed there were 11,499 grooms who remarried in 2004, higher than 4,505 brides who were marrying again.
There were 5,928 male divorcees who remarried, much higher than the 440 female divorcees. Remarriage was also more common among widowers than widows. There were 5,530 widowers who got married during the period, higher than the 4,059 widows.
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