Israel: Number of weddings down in 2020 compared to previous year
This decline is largely attributed to health restrictions related to the Covid pandemic
Fewer Israelis got married in 2020 and tied the knot at younger ages than in 2019, according to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday on the eve of Tu B'av, the Jewish day of love.
The survey showed that 39,984 Israeli couples were married through religious institutions in Israel in 2020, a 17 percent drop from 2019. This decline is largely attributed to health restrictions imposed during the pandemic.
About 68 percent of newly married couples were Jewish, which is a 19-percent drop compared to the previous year. The number of Muslim couples married in 2020 amounted to 11,477, marking an 11-percent decrease from the previous year. Another 895 couples were Druze (down 8 percent from 2019) and 582 were Christian (down 28 percent).
Overall, the number of married citizens compared to single Israelis fell by 19 percent in 2020 compared to the year before. At the same time, the number of young Jewish adults living as a couple without getting married has increased in recent years, according to the survey.
The number of single Jewish men between the ages of 45 and 49 has risen from 3 percent in 1970 to 13 percent in 2020. Meanwhile, the number of single Jewish men between the ages of 25 and 29 increased from 28 percent in 1970 to 65 percent in 2020.
A considerable increase in the number of single Jewish women aged 45-49 was also detected - from two percent in 1970 to 11 percent in 2020. The percentage of single Jewish women aged 25-29 increased from 13 percent to 51 percent during the same period.
Among Israeli cities with over 100,000 inhabitants, the percentage of single women aged 45 to 49 was the highest in Tel Aviv - 29 percent. The percentage of single men of the same age in Tel Aviv was even higher - 32.4 percent.
According to the study, Israelis also got married younger than in 2019. The average age at which Israeli men first married rose from 27.3 in 2019 to 26.9 in 2020. Among women, the average age of marriage was 24.6 in 2020, down from 24.9 in 2019. In 1970, the average age of marriage for women was 21.7.