The age of Irish brides and grooms is on the rise in Ireland, the latest Central Statistic Office figures reveal. The average age rose to 33.4-years-old for grooms and 31.3-years-old for brides.
 
Also one fifth of marriages take place in a civil registry office. In 2007 5,146 civil services were recorded. The figure now stands at 22,756. Also the rate of weddings has dropped from 5.2 in every 1,000 of the population to 4.8 last year.
 
Roman Catholic marriages are still the most popular. They account for 74 percent of all marriages or 16,854 marriages. Church of Ireland ceremonies account for 526 with the remaining one percent made up of Presbyterian, Methodist, Jewish and other ceremonies.
 
Civil ceremonies were most popular in the Dublin area and with grooms over 45 and brides over 40. In more than one third of civil ceremonies one of the parties was divorced. Also 329 men and women who remarried had been widowed.
 
In 63 percent of marriages the groom is older than the bridge and in 15 percent of cases they are the same age. In one quarter of cases the bride is older.