Registered marriages totaled 486,514 in 2008, a decrease by 0.7 percent

There were 486,514 marriages registered in the country in 2008, a decrease of 0.7 percent from the 2007 count of 490,054.

Among regions, NCR top the list with 15.8 percent of the total marriages in the country, while the least was recorded in ARMM with 0.5 percent.

Women preferred to marry at ages 20-24 while men at ages 25-29

More than one-third (37.5%) of bride got married at ages 20-24, while for the groom (35.3%) at ages 25-29.

Teen marriages declined by 0.04 percent from previous year

A total of 65,958 teen marriages recorded or about 13.6 percent of the total marriages in the country, a decline of of 0.04 percent from the 2007 count of 69,052. Teen brides is four times more than the teen grooms.

Civil rites still preferred by Filipinos

Marriages celebrated through civil rites numbered 199,680 or 41.0 percent of the total marriages reported during the year. Wedding ceremonies in Roman Catholic churches was the second highest with 176,389 or 36.3 percent of the total reported marriages.

Compared to the data a year earlier (2007), it can be observed that the number and percentages of marriages under civil rite and in Roman Catholic ceremonies decreased in 2008. On the one hand, it can be noted that marriages in Islam, tribal and other religious rites increased in number and percentages from 2007 to 2008.

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 2008 and were registered from January 2008 to March 2009. Figures are not adjusted for underregistration.