Hungary Sees Big Increase In Marriages
- 31 May 2021 9:40 AM
- Kafkadesk
Hungary now has the third highest rate of new marriages in the European Union, according to new Eurostat figures.
Hungary sees significant increase in marriages
With 8.9 marriages performed per 1,000 people in 2019, Cyprus had the single highest rate of marriage in the EU, followed by Lithuania (7 per 1,000 persons), Hungary and Latvia (both 6.7), Romania (6.6), Slovakia (5.4), Denmark and Malta (5.3 each).
Compared to only 5.2 weddings per 1,000 people in 2018 (10th place in the EU), Hungary also registered the biggest year-on-year increase. Eurostat’s data appear to confirm previous figures released by the Hungarian statistical office, pointing to a 20% increase in marriage in the first nine months of 2019 alone.
This sudden and significant surge of marriages in Hungary has largely been attributed to the introduction by the government of strong financial incentives encouraging couples to tie the knot and have more children.
But while the impact of the policy on Hungarians’ readiness to wed appears clear, no significant changes on the country’s plummeting birth rate has yet been observed.
Marriage rate halved, divorces doubling across the EU
Since the early 1960s, the yearly number of marriages across the EU has decreased from an average of 8 per 1,000 people to 4.3, according to the latest figures. At the same time, the divorce rate has more than doubled compared to over 50 years ago (0.8 divorces per 1,000 persons in 1964, 1.8 in 2019).
The divorce rate in Hungary (1.8 / 1,000), Poland (1.7) and Slovakia (1.7) was close to the EU average, but was found to be slightly higher in the Czech Republic (2.3).
Compared to the rest of the EU, divorces were more common in Lithuania, Latvia and Luxembourg (3.1 per 1,000), as well as Cyprus (2.6), Sweden (2.5) and Finland (2.4).
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