Marriage more popular in Norway

In 2022, about 21,000 people got married. That is an increase of 4,700 weddings compared to 2021, the Norwegian Statistics Agency reports. At the same time, 17,000 spouses went separate ways. The latter number has not been this low since the 80s. In 2021, about 700 more people divorced.

Increase in marriages has a downside

20-04-2023

At the same time, it should be noted that the lower divorce rate only applies to people under 50. Spouses older than that divorce just as often as last year, demographer Anders Sønstebø says.

He explains this trend by the fact that people marry at an older age and get children later too. “We know that many people keep the family together until the children move out on their own. This phase naturally comes at an older age.”

The demographer believes that the rise in marriages is partly due to the Covid pandemic, Dagen reports. “For many, the wedding is one of the biggest days in their lives. The tradition is to gather family and friends for a party, and this was not possible during the pandemic measures”, Sønstebø says. Therefore, he suspects that people may have postponed their weddings until the Covid restrictions were abolished.

Remarkable is that the number of marriages sealed in the church grew the fastest. In total, 37 per cent of the people getting married did so in the Church of Norway. “The number is significantly higher than in 2018 and 2019”, church council leader Kristin Gunleiksrud Raaum says in a press release.