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Ten percent of people who got married for the first time in 2022 were in their 40s

Photo: Andreas Lander/picture alliance/dpa

On average, brides and grooms are always older when they get married for the first time in Germany. The average age is at a new high, said the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden. In 2022, women were on average 32.6 years old and men 35.1 years old when they married for the first time.

Within 20 years, the average age at first marriage rose by 3.8 years for women and by 3.3 years for men. The average age difference between the sexes has shrunk slightly from three years to two and a half years since 2002.

Seven percent were 50 years or older

The number of people who married for the first time in middle age or older also increased: According to statistics, ten percent of the total 609,800 people who got married for the first time in 2022 were in their forties, seven percent were 50 years old or older.

For comparison: In 2002, only one percent of those who married for the first time were at least 50 years old. 36 percent were younger than 30 in 2022. In 2002, the proportion was 52 percent, more than half.

The statisticians believe that one of the reasons for the changes is the changing age structure of the population. The proportion of the 50+ age group in the total population has increased from around 36 to 45 percent within 20 years.

Almost every second adult is married

According to the information, at the end of 2022, around 34.6 million people in Germany were married or living in a registered civil partnership - a good 49 percent of adults.

A total of 781,500 people got married that year. A fifth of them were previously divorced and one percent were widowed. Almost three percent of all marriages involved couples of the same sex.

The average age at divorce also rose and reached a new high: According to statisticians, it was 44.7 years for women and 47.8 years for men. At the same time, the average length of a marriage until divorce has increased to 15.1 years.

The number of divorces has been falling continuously since 2012 - with the exception of 2019. A total of around 137,400 marriages were divorced in Germany in 2022.

kub/AFP