Explanatory Notes
This special release presents data on marriages obtained from marriage certificates registered at the Local Civil Registry Office (LCRO) all throughout the country and forwarded to the Office of the Civil Registrar General. These include marriages officiated by priests, pastors, judges, mayors and others who are authorized by law to solemnize marriage. Data comprised of marriages that occurred in 2003 and were registered from January 2003 to March 2004. Statistics presented were not adjusted for underregistration.
Couples most likely get married in May
One out of nine couples in the country got married in May. For four consecutive years, May, the month of flowers and festivals was consistently the peak month for getting married. Riding on the “fiesta” occasion may be one of the factors that influenced the choice of couples to marry during this month. The daily average of marriage occurrences during this month was 2,189.
December, which ranked third last year, went up by one notch with 63,571 marriages recorded. This gave a daily average of 2,051 marriages. The third highest number of registered marriages (63,302) was in the month of January with a daily average of 2,042. A very slight difference (269 marriages) on the frequency of marriages between January and December was noted.
On the other hand, the least number of couples (32,031) who took their vows was in the month of August. This gave a daily average of 1,033 marriages for the month.
Following next to August in the least counts were the months of November with a total of 33,955 marriages and an average daily marriage of 1,132 or daily index of 69.6 and July with 38,973 and an average daily marriage of 1,257.
Crude marriage rate is 7.3
In 2003, the rate at which couples marry per 1,000 mid year population or the Crude Marriage Rate (CMR) was 7.3. The CMR was consistent at this value since 2002. The maintained crude marriage rate showed an almost uniform frequency of marriage occurrences for two consecutive years (2002 to 2003).
There is an increase of 1.8 percent in the number of marriages from previous year
A total of 593,553 marriages was recorded in 2003, an increase of 1.8 percent from 583,167 registered in 2002.
Among regions, National Capital Region (NCR) got the highest number of registered marriages comprising one-sixth of the total registered marriages or 100,665 (17.0%). Following close were Region IVA – CALABARZON with 13.2 percent and Region III – Central Luzon with 12.8 percent. The rest of the regions contributed less than ten percent of the total.
The least number of marriages was recorded in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with 2,058 (0.3%). Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) was next in rank with a count of 10,822 (1.8%) marriages, followed by Caraga Region with 13, 774 (2.3%).
Women marry earlier than men
The number of teenage brides (under 20 years old) (80,085 or 13.5 %) getting married was more than four times the number of teenage grooms (19,829 or 3.3%). On the other end, the number of grooms aged 50 years old and over (20,216 or 3.4%) was more than twice the number of brides (9.288 or 1.6%) in the same age group.
About four out of ten brides got married at the age of 20-24 years old. However, the largest frequency of marriage for the grooms was at the age group 25-29 years old (32.3%). The median age at marriage for brides increased by one year from 24 to 25 while for the groom is 27.
It is interesting to note that men tend to marry even after their golden years. Grooms aged 75 years old and over (1,149) were three times more than the brides in the same age group.
Majority of the marriages are solemnized under civil rites
Two out of five (41.3%) recorded marriages in 2003 were contracted through civil rites. Marriages under Roman Catholic, the largest dominant religion in the country, was second ranked with 220,393 or 37.1 percent. The rest were solemnized under Islam (810 or 0.2%), Tribal Rites (830 or 0.2%) and other religious rites (excluding Roman Catholic and Islam) (126,536 or 21.3%).
Intermarriages with Filipinas are highest among Japanese nationals
A total of 17,095 or 2.9 percent were intermarriages between Filipino brides and grooms with foreign nationals. Of this total, some 13,497 or 2.3 percent Filipino brides tied knot with foreigner grooms while 3,598 or 0.6 percent Filipino grooms married foreigner brides. Nearly three-fourths of the total intermarriages were of Filipino brides.
Among foreign nationals, the most number of intermarriages involved Filipino brides with Japanese grooms (5,468). Other foreign nationals that were married to Filipino brides are the Americans (3,002), Australians (569), Chinese (393), Germans (205), Spanish (124) and 3,519 Filipinos were married to other foreign nationals.
On the other hand, the highest number of intermarriages involving Filipino grooms were with Chinese brides (1,999) followed by Americans (514), Japanese (155), Spanish (129) and Australians bride (111).
Remarriage is more common among men
Registered marriages in 2003 was dominated by brides and grooms who were previously single numbering 580,453 or 97.8 percent.
For every two widower and divorced/separated grooms, a counterpart of one widow and divorced/separated bride also got married. Sex ratio of remarriages was 221 males per 100 females. There were 10,277 or 1.7 percent of grooms and 4,645 or 1.0 percent of brides who were widowed and divorced/separated.
