Marriages, nuptiality

Marriage is the union of a man and a woman as established in law. The fact of getting married changes the structure of the population (change in civil status) and has an influence on fertility in Switzerland, as most births are to married couples. A distinction is made between first and subsequent marriages:

• A first-time marriage is the union of a man and a woman who have both never previously married. To date, the majority of marriages represent this type of union.
• A subsequent marriage is any marriage where at least one of the spouses has previously been divorced or widowed.
  

Marriages

	2015	2016	2017
Total	41 437	41 646	40 599
Swiss male and Swiss female	19 862	19 821	19 558
Swiss male and foreign female	8 185	8 239	7 972
Foreign male and Swiss female	6 723	6 879	6 550
Foreign male and foreign female	6 667	6 707	6 519
"First-time" marriages
Men	32 423	32 864	32 119
Women	33 616	33 997	33 200

Source: FSO, BEVNAT

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The marriage rate depicts the frequency and the characteristics of marriage within a population. A cross-disciplinary study provides a measure - a snapshot - of a given year (usually a calendar year), of all generations.

The cross-disciplinary indicators used to calculate the marriage rate are:

The crude marriage rate

The crude marriage rate is the ratio of marriages concluded in a given period, usually a calendar year, in relation to the average size of the population. This indicator is shown by the number of marriages per thousand inhabitants.

The short-term "first-time marriage" indicator

The short-term "first-time marriage" indicator is the sum of marriage rates of never previously married persons by age. First marriage rates are based on persons who have never previously married and with an upper age limit of 50. This upper age limit for first-time marriages was introduced due to its impact on fertility.

In the middle of the 20th century, it was expected that almost everyone would marry at least once in their lives; today slightly less than two-thirds of people marry.

The average age at first-time marriage

This indicator gives an idea of the average age of men and women getting married during the calendar year. Between 1870 and 1940 the average age at marriage was 26.5 for women and 28.5 for men. Between 1940 and 1970 it fell by two years. This decrease in average age at first  marriage had a great impact on fertility trends during this period.  

Today, men and women are getting married later and later. Couples are now 5 years older at the time of their first marriage than in 1971. The age difference between single men and women getting married has remained relatively stable at national level since 1950; men are between 2.2 and 2.6 years older than women.

The longitudinal marriage study observes the "generations" that got married at least once before their 50th birthday. The term "generation" is used to describe all people born during the same calendar year. The longitudinal indicator is the proportion of married, divorced or widowed people by generation and sex.

Proportion of married, divorced or widowed people by generation and sex

The proportion of married, widowed or divorced people is the proportion of people in the generation under consideration who got married at least once before their 50th birthday. It is the sum of all first-time marriage rates by age in this generation.

The proportion of married, divorced or widowed persons by age 50, which was around 80% for generations born from 1860 to 1890, rose with the following generations, peaking for those born around 1920 (88% for the male generations born in 1920 and 1921, 89% for female generations born in 1923 and 1924). In contrast, for the generations born after 1920, and to an even greater extent for those born after 1950, this proportion has fallen considerably, bearing witness to the growing numbers turning their back on the institution of marriage.

Further information

Data