Increasing number of marriages

In 2017, the total number of marriages recorded was 434,932, an increase of 3.6 percent from 419,628 marriages in 2016. The number of registered marriages showed an erratic trend from 2008 to 2017, with noticeable varying of figures in 2012 to 2013. (See Figure 1 and Table 1)

The decrease in marriages in a span of 10 years changed from 14.4 percent for 2007 to 2016 to 10.6 percent for 2008 to 2017 after an increase of 15,304 marriages in the annual count. (See Table 1)

Highest number of marriages in CALABARZON

In 2017, Region IV-A recorded the highest number of registered marriages, which accounted for 13.4 percent of the total marriages. It was followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) (12.8%) and Region III (11.7%). These regions were consistently in the top three for the past seven years. (See Figure 1 and Table 1)

Fourteen regions with positive percent change

Fourteen out of seventeen regions showed a positive percent change from 2016 to 2017. The top three regions with positive percent change found in Mindanao area. The highest increase was observed in ARMM with 43.3 percent, followed by SOCCSKSARGEN and Northern Mindanao with 11.8 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively.

Among the three regions with negative percent change, Zamboanga Peninsula had the highest decrease of 12.1 percent. The other two regions were Cagayan Valley and Caraga with 5.9 percent and 4.9 percent decrease, respectively from 2016 to 2017. (See Figure 2 and Table 2)

Most number of couples married in May

Women married younger than men One-third of the total number of marriages in 2017 was recorded in the months of May (11.6%), December (11.5%) and February (10.4%), where each month having more than 10.0 percent of the total marriages. The month of November was the least liked month for marriage, recording the lowest at 5.0 percent. (See Table 3)

Women married younger than men

The median age of women that got married in 2017 was two years lower than the median age of their male counterparts. It was observed that the median age for men and women went up a single year from last year. (See Figure 3)

Most brides and grooms married between ages 25-29 years old

About one third of the brides and the grooms married between ages 25-29 years old, where grooms with 157,407 or 36.2 percent of the total marriages and brides with 148,618 or 34.2 percent.

It was also observed that there are four teenage brides (32,404) for every one teenage groom (7,609) for marriages involving teenagers. (See Figure 4 and Table 4)

Filipino brides and grooms also marry other nationalities

There were 419,675 marriages (96.5%) between Filipino grooms and Filipino brides while 15,257 (3.5%) involved foreign nationals.

Among foreign nationals, the highest frequency of intermarriages involved Filipino grooms and Australians (298) followed by Chinese (273), Americans (162), Canadians (135) and Japanese (123) Japanese brides.

On the other hand, the highest number of intermarriages involved Filipino brides and American grooms (3,168), followed by Japanese (1,490). (See Table 6)

Four out of ten marriages contracted through civil rites

There were 1,192 marriages solemnized daily through different types of ceremony.

Of the total marriages in 2017, 40.1 percent were contracted through civil ceremony. Others were either officiated in Roman Catholic Church (38.2%), or performed in Muslim tradition (1.5%) or tribal ceremony (0.6%) and other religious rites (19.6%). (See Table 3 and Figure 5)

It could be noted that more brides and grooms aged 25-29 years old preferred to be solemnized in the Roman Catholic Church than any other types of marriage ceremony. (See Tables 5a and 5b)

LISA GRACE S. BERSALES, Ph.D.
Undersecretary
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General