Valentine’s Day: Romanians marry later but fewer marriages end in divorce, study shows

Back in 1990, the Romanian men were getting married at 25 years, on average, while the women were getting married even younger, at 22 years. The average age of first marriage has been on an upward trend since then, reaching 31.9 years for men and 28.7 years for women in 2018, according to an analysis by Frames.

The analysis looked at how the Romanian society has changed after the 1989 Revolution, focusing on the marriage and divorce trends in the country.

Not only that the Romanians are now marrying later in life, but the number of marriages has also been on a downtrend in the last 30 years, the same analysis revealed. More than 192,600 marriages were recorded in Romania in 1990, and by 2018 their number decreased by almost 50,000, to 143,292. The negative record was registered in 2011, when the National Institute of Statistics (INS) reported a total number of 105,599 marriages.

According to Frames, there was a connection between the low number of marriages registered in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and the economic crisis, which translated into financial problems and social insecurity for the Romanians. The marriages returned to a positive trend after the crisis, going up to a total number of 143,292 in 2018 (679 more than in the previous year).

Thus the marriage rate went up to 6.5 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2018, the highest level in 10 years. In 1990, for comparison, there were 8.3 marriages per 1000 inhabitants.

“30 years ago, getting married was an essential step for young people […] It was a social event in which the feelings were closely related to the customs, to the idea of a home, of safety, of a traditional family, especially in rural areas. In 2020, Romanian society is more sophisticated, especially in urban areas. Education, media & social media influence, social emancipation, aspirations related to work, career, multiple options related to leisure, the very concept of "dating", of sentimental relationship is presented at another level. The Internet, dating services have significantly influenced the Romanians’ appetite for long-term relationships, a phenomenon that is in fact encountered in all Western countries,” said Adrian Negrescu, Frames manager.

Thus, in 2018, the average age of marriage was 33.8 years for men and 30.6 years for women. According to the INS data, most marriages (14.4% of the total number of marriages) were concluded between men and women in the 25-29 age group in 2018, followed by those concluded by men from the same age group with women from the 20-24 age group (12.2%).

Most of the 143,292 marriages recorded in Romania in 2018 were registered in Bucharest (24,476), Iasi county (6,641), Suceava county (5,179), and Timis county (5,135).

However, the same analysis revealed that the number of divorces reached in 2018 one of the lowest levels of the last 30 years. If in 1990 there were 32,966 divorces, and in 2010 32,632, in 2018 their number dropped to 30,857. The divorce rate has thus decreased from 1.42 per 1000 inhabitants in 1990 to 1.39 per 1000 inhabitants in 2018.