Summary

Statistics arising from marriages are presented in this section. Unlike the birth and death statistics, which are based on usual residence, the marriage information is based on all marriages that occurred in British Columbia and includes non-residents. The tables in this section contain information about marriages by previous marital status, age of bride and groom, and type of ceremony.

Summary statistics for marriages in 2000 are presented below:

A total of 22,074 marriages were solemnized, a slight increase from the 21,623 marriages in 1999. The marriage rate has shown a downward trend in the last two decades, from 9.0 marriages per 1,000 population in 1980 to 5.4 in 1998, 1999 and 2000 (see Table 1). In 2000, 60.3% of couples were marrying for the first time. In 21.0% of the marriages in 2000 it was the first marriage for only one of the parties and 18.7% of marriages involved couples where both partners were previously divorced or widowed.

Approximately one quarter of all brides and one quarter of all grooms who were married in 2000 had previously been divorced. Marriages where either the bride or groom was under 20 years of age accounted for approximately one out of every 37 marriages, and there were only 70 marriages where both the bride and groom were teenagers. Out of every 100 marriages in 2000, approximately: 43 were performed by religious representatives 57 were civil ceremonies.