The married couple model is still the dominant one in the European Union. According to figures provided by Eurostat, people who have married at least once in their lifetime represent an average of 43% of the population. In some countries, it reaches even half of the total population. France is far from this level and is ranked 23rd in the European Union.

Getting married is still the norm in Europe. While the number of marriages is steadily declining, data provided by the European Statistical Office, Eurostat, show that marriage concerns, or has affected, 43% of the population of the European Union.

An important figure when we know that these statistics include children, who are not, by definition, old enough to get married.

We get married a lot in the southern countries

In three southern European countries, this figure reaches even half of the population. 51% of the inhabitants of Malta are thus married, while the 50% mark is reached in Greece and Cyprus. In these countries, getting married is a quasi-obligatory social norm.

In countries with a strong Catholic culture too, marriage is a norm. Between 45 and 48% of the population is thus in an official union in Italy, Poland, Croatia, Portugal, Spain. Orthodox Romania is also in this case.

In contrast to these southern countries, the population is poorly married in Scandinavia and the Baltic States. In Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Denmark, only 33% to 39% are married. Note that one of the three Baltic States is an exception: Lithuania where the rate of married people is 42%. This may be due to the influence of neighboring Poland or the fact that the population is predominantly Catholic.

France is in 23rd place of this ranking. In France, only 38% of the population passed through the town hall (mandatory in France) to get married.

Differences according to the regions of the same country

The German case is interesting to study. There are great disparities across the Rhine. In the Koblenz region, in the west of the country between Frankfurt and Bonn, 48% of the population got married. That's thirteen points more than in Berlin! Indeed, in the German capital, only 35% of the inhabitants put the ring finger on the 3.2 million residents. Other big cities are also in this case: Hamburg and Bremen are at 38 and 39%.

(Regional data not available for Ireland and Lithuania)

In France, the situation is rather homogeneous in metropolitan France with a level between 38 and 41% of people who have been married in the population. Only Île-de-France is 36%. In Normandy, there are more breaks than unions ...

It is especially overseas that marriage is not a strong social norm: only 26% of people living in the overseas departments are married. This figure drops to 14% in French Guiana.