Registered marriages totaled 492,254 in 2009, an increase of 1.2 percent
There were 492,254 marriages registered in the country in 2009, an increase of 1.2 percent from the 2008 count of 486,514. This is a reverse trend, wherein in previous years, the number of marriages was declining in the country.
Among regions, NCR top the list with 14.5 percent of the total marriages in the country, while the least was recorded in ARMM with 0.3 percent. Both NCR and ARMM remain in the same position in the previous years.
Women preferred to marry at ages 20-24 while men at ages 25-29
As in previous years, the trend shows that women marry at a younger age than their men counterpart. In 2009, more than one-third (36.8%) of bride got married at ages 20-24, while for the groom (34.8%) at ages 25-29.
Number of teenage brides down by 1.5 percent from previous year
A total of 64,946 teenage brides recorded or about 13.2 percent of the total marriages in the country, a decline of 1.5 percent from the 2008 count of 65,958. The number of teen brides is almost five times more than the teen grooms.
Civil rites still preferred by Filipinos
Marriages celebrated through civil rites numbered 218,361 or 44.4 percent of the total marriages reported during the year. Wedding ceremonies in Roman Catholic churches got the second highest with 170,502 or 34.6 percent of the total reported marriages.
Tribal rites is on the rise
As compared in previous years, it can be observed that marriages under civil rites showed a declining trend from 2006 to 2008 but in 2009 it increased by 9.4 percent. Tribal rites show a positive trend and, increasing by 75.1 percent in 2009. On the other hand, marriages in Roman Catholic show a negative trend and it decreased by 3.3 percent in 2009, while Islam showing a positive trend from 2006-2008, but it decreased by 16.6 percent in 2009.
Data on marriages presented in this release were obtained from the second copy of the marriage certificates that were registered at the Office of the City/Municipal Civil Registrars all throughout the country and forwarded to the National Statistics Office. Figures presented include only those marriages which occurred in 2009 and were registered from January 2009 to March 2010. Figures are not adjusted for underregistration
