While marriage seems to be going out of fashion in France, one of our neighbors is resisting and shattering the marriage record in Europe. But what is this country where we continue to say “Yes!” massively?
Getting married is a dream come true for many: it’s the opportunity to wear a sumptuous dress, celebrate your love, and throw a party with all the people who matter. But morals are evolving and this grandiose ceremony is no longer a systematic passage for couples, who are gradually moving away from this tradition as old as time… or at least, who are committing to it much later than before. There are precisely half as many marriages, throughout Europe combined, as there were 50 years ago! However, some countries are resisting with a surprisingly high marriage rate.
This is not the case for France… Although considered the country of love in the eyes of the whole world, France is lagging behind when it comes to the number of marriages. Yes, far from romantic clichés, the French are apparently not big fans of weddings. We thus rank fifth among the countries which celebrate the fewest unions: in 2023, the marriage rate was only 3.5, according to Eurostat figures. Understand that only 3.5 couples said “Yes!” on a proportion of 1,000 inhabitants, in the space of one year. Tied with Portugal and Spain, France is still ahead of Bulgaria (3.4), Italy (3.1) and Slovenia, which brings up the rear with a rate of 3…
But which country dominates the entire continent, where love still seems to triumph over statistics? It is in Romania that lovers pass rings on their fingers the most: the country has a record marriage rate of 5.8. This is almost double that of Slovenia and well above the European average, set at 4 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants.
Marriage rates in European countries
Furthermore, although one might think that the number of divorces is proportional to that of marriages, the reality is more nuanced. Romania is among the good students with a very low divorce rate: only 1.2 separations per year per 1,000 inhabitants, just behind Croatia (1.1) and Slovenia (1). Conversely, Latvia is on the podium in both rankings. There are 5.6 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to 2.8 divorces, or precisely half. Since 2017, it has been possible to divorce by mutual consent with a notary. As these breaks are not recorded by INSEE, the statistics remain incomplete.
Marriage has therefore lost its splendor in the old continent, but it retains a symbolic force in certain territories, notably in Eastern Europe. Between enduring traditions and new forms of union or disunion, the map of unions is being redrawn, proving that each country now cultivates its own relationship to marital commitment.
