In love, engaged, married
Does the old tradition 'in love-engaged-married' still apply? What kind of relationships do people in Germany have today? 10 facts.
- In 2019, there were 17.5 million married couples and 3.3 million civil partnerships in Germany, making a total of around 20.8 million couples.
- The ratios between different living arrangements have changed compared to 2009. For example, the number of civil unions has increased by 575,000, or 21 percent; and in 2019 there were about 763,000 fewer married couples in Germany than ten years earlier.
- 416,324 weddings were celebrated in 2019. After German reunification, the number of marriages initially declined – from around 450,000 in 1991 to 369,000 in 2007. The trend since then has seen more couples heading for the registry office again.
- Most people choose a partner with the same level of education. In 2019, for example, nearly two-thirds of mixed-sex couples had a similar educational background.
- Same-sex couples in Germany have been able to marry since October 2017. By the end of 2019, more than 52,000 same-sex couples had married or had their civil partnership recognized as a marriage.
- 48,347 marriages were contracted between Germans and foreigners. When German men chose a foreign partner, she most often had Turkish (12%), Polish (9%) or Russian (6%) nationality. German women primarily chose Turks (17%), Italians (12%) or Austrians (7%) in 2019.
- People are getting married later and later. In the early 1970s, single men were about 25 years old on average and women about 23 when they got married; these days, men are 34.6 and women 32.1 years old at their first marriage.
- In 2019, a total of 149,010 marriages ended in divorce. The average length of marriages up to divorce was 14.8 years – three years and 4 months longer than in 1990.
- A marriage can end in divorce or annulment. Most often it ends with the death of one of the spouses: this was the reason for 71 percent of the marriages ending.
- By the way, most couples meet through mutual friends. Contacts via the internet or a dating app are only in second place, followed by meetings in a disco, a bar or at a party.
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