Does the place of residence affect marriage?

Marking World Marriage Day and Valentine’s Day

When we realised that World Marriage Day is celebrated only four days before Valentine's Day, the decision was simple - study the population data and find out what kind of marriage decisions were made by the citizens of Croatia.

Fateful “yes” around the age of thirty

The last available year for which we could observe the data in more detail, and thus present them to you, was 2022. We did not draw conclusions about the habits of Croatian people, however, the available larger set of data from population statistics still encouraged us to think. In 2022, there were 18 074 marriages, and for 87.7% of grooms and 87.8% of brides it was their first marriage. As has been pointed out for years, couples are deciding to get married later and later, as confirmed by the data for 2022, when the average age of groom at first marriage was 31.7, and the average age of bride was 29.3.

Although love does not equal marriage and it is clear that a love relationship can be very strong and last for many years even "without a paper", looking at the data at the county level, we asked ourselves if geographical location has anything to do with love? Whether it is the regions of Croatia that are more inclined to tradition, and marriage is often considered a traditional form, or the influence of the environment, in some counties marriage is a more frequent form of union. The rate of marriages per 1 000 inhabitants at the level of the Republic of Croatia was 4.7, being the highest in the County of Vukovar-Srijem (6.0) and the lowest in the County of Istria (3.4).
 

(Hover your mouse over the interactive map to find out data for all counties)

Regional differences are also present as regards the form of marriages. At the level of Croatia, 50.6% of marriages in 2022 were religious and 49.4% were civil. The largest share of religious marriages was recorded in the County of Lika-Senj (63.0%) and the smallest in the County of Istria (38.1%).
 

(Hover your mouse over the interactive map to find out data for all counties)

Marriage lasts 15.3 years on average

Unfortunately, not that rarely, marriage has an expiration date. In 2022, there were 4 808 divorces. Per 1 000 marriages, 266.0 ended in a divorce.
The County of Šibenik-Knin had the smallest number of divorces per 1 000 marriages (103.3), while the County of Karlovac had the largest number of divorces (455.8).

For love sceptics, we have one more piece of data - the average duration of divorced marriages in 2022 was 15.3 years, which would lead optimists to a conclusion that marriage should still be given a chance.

With Valentine's Day in mind, we took a look at the statistics from the 2021 Census, which show that some Croatian citizens have love and affection in their name.

At the end of this review, we can tell you that, regardless of whether we record your stages of love or not, you can love each other all year round! Happy World Marriage Day and upcoming Valentine's Day!

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