Chart of the Day: Check out this trend in marriages in 2012

Marrying age for women rose to 28 years.

According to Department of Statistics latest report, men and women are marrying later in life. For men, the median age at first marriage rose from 28.9 years in 2002 to 30.1 years in 2012. For women, it rose from 26.3 years to 28.0 years.

The median age at remarriage also rose. The median age of grooms who were remarrying rose from 40.1 years in 2002 to 42.1 years in 2012. For brides,
it increased from 34.1 years to 36.4 years.

The total number of marriages (comprising both civil and Muslim marriages) registered in 2012 was 27,9362.

This was 2.5 per cent higher than the 27,2583 marriages registered in 2011. The number of civil marriages rose from 22,840 in 2011 to 23,134 in 2012. Similarly, Muslim marriages increased from 4,418 to 4,802 over the same period.

The general marriage rates increased for the second consecutive year in 2012. Specifically, the marriage rate for males increased from 43.7 marriages per thousand unmarried males aged 15-44 years in 2011 to 44.1 in 2012.

Similarly for females, the marriage rate rose slightly from 41.4 to 41.6 marriages per thousand unmarried females aged 15-44 years during the same period.