Last year saw the lowest number of marriages in Clare since records began.
230 marriages were registered in this county in 2020, compared to more than double that the year before.
Given the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of last year, it’s perhaps not overly surprising that the number of marriages in Clare fell – but the 230 unions here were the lowest on record by some distance.
It’s a drop of more than 61 percent on 2019’s total, when 597 marriages took place across the Banner – that is above the national average 2020 drop of 53 percent.
It’s even lower than the high of 617 marriages here in 2017, and is in fact the lowest recorded by a long way since the CSO began compiling county-by-county records in 1997.
Interestingly, the average age of people getting hitched in Clare is increasing, suggesting people are marrying when older than ever before.
The average age of a groom in Clare was 36.2 back in 2017- in just three years, that’s gone up to 38.6.
Brides have seen a similar jump, with their average age standing at 34.1 in 2017 – it was 36.5 last year.
It seems likely that the number of marriages taking place here in 2021 will once again be lower than average given the COVID-19 restrictions that have been in place for much of this year.
