In Serbia last year, 31.670 couples got married, according to the data of the Republic Institute of Statistics. On the other hand, 10.175 couples decided to end their marriage in divorce - in translation, almost one in three marriages end in divorce.
Statistically, the situation is somewhat worse than in 2022, when about 1100 more couples got married, and about 300 fewer married couples divorced.
In percentage terms, in 2023 the number of marriages will decrease by 3,5 percent, and the number of divorced marriages will increase by 3,7 percent compared to the previous year.
Statistical data should be viewed in a broader social context, said demographer Goran Penev from the Institute of Social Sciences for the BBC in Serbian.
"Due to the ban on weddings in 2020 and 2021 during the corona virus pandemic, the number of marriages in Serbia has significantly decreased. And the general trend is that there are fewer and fewer marriages, the only thing is that it is not like in the West connected with the increase of informal marriage unions, because in our country registered partnership is not legally equated with marriage," says Penev.
Difference from place to place
The five municipalities with the highest percentage of married people are Preševo (60,6 percent), Bujanovac, Aleksandrovac, Prijepolje and Raška.
On the other hand, the largest participation of unmarried persons was recorded in the city municipalities of Belgrade - Stari grad (38,4 percent), Zvezdara, Vračar, Palilula and Voždovac and in Novi Sad (36 percent).
As for the percentage of divorced people, Vojvodina leads the way. The largest share of divorcees was in Subotica (8,9 percent), Bečej, Senta, Zaječar, but also in the Belgrade municipalities of Stari Grad (8,3 percent) and Vračar.
706 couples divorced in Novi Sad last year, which is the highest number since 2011. Since 2015, more than 500 marriages have been concluded annually in Novi Sad, and since 2019, the number has increased. The exception is the pandemic year 2020, when 489 couples divorced.
As for concluded marriages, Novi Sad is not doing great there either - with 1864 marriages, last year would have been the worst since 2011 if it hadn't been for the pandemic of 2020, when, as a rule, everything was on hold, including weddings. That year, 1483 couples decided to stand on the "crazy stone".
More and more seniors are getting married, but also divorcing
Citizens of Serbia who decide to get married are, on average, getting older every year. The same trend is present in the rest of Europe.
According to RZS data, the average age at marriage in Serbia last year for grooms was 34,5 years, and for brides 31,4 years. Compared to 2022, this is not a big difference - then the average age of men was 34,1, and women 31,1.
The RSZ report also says that couples are divorcing later and later - the average age of husbands at divorce in 2023 was 45,2 years, and for women 41,7 years, which is 0,1 and 0,2 more, respectively, compared to 2022 . a year.
The average duration of a divorced marriage in 2023 is 13,7 years, according to the RSZ report.
What is the situation in the region?
In contrast to Serbia, in the previous year, a higher number of marriages and divorces were recorded in Montenegro.
Divorced marriages also lasted an average of 13 years.
Last year, 3474 marriages were concluded in Montenegro, and 775 were divorced. The number of marriages concluded in 2023 is 5,6 percent higher than in 2022, while the number of divorced marriages is 12,3 percent higher in compared to the previous year, announced the Directorate for Statistics MONSTAT.
And the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina notes that in 2023 there was an increase in the number of divorced marriages compared to the previous year: 1608 divorces were recorded, 218 more than in 2022, and the data are not optimistic even when looking at the number of marriages.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is 12.780, which is 265 less than in 2022.
Croatia is the only one to record a decrease in the number of divorces
Last year, 19.467 marriages were arranged in Croatia, that is, almost 1400 more than in 2022, when 18.074 were arranged.
Provisional data for 2023 published by the CBS also showed that there were fewer divorced marriages last year, with the number of divorces falling to 4001, compared to 4808 divorced in 2022.
European trends
The number of married couples in the EU has been decreasing for decades while the number of divorces has increased, but both trends have slowed down in recent years.
Legal alternatives to marriage, such as registered partnerships, have become more widespread, according to Eurostat's website.
And national legislation is changing to give greater rights to unmarried couples.
An increase in the number of children born to unmarried couples was also observed.
In 2021, the lowest marriage rates in the EU were recorded in Slovenia and Portugal, where there were 2,8 marriages per 1000 people.
The European average is 3,9 marriages per thousand inhabitants, according to Eurostat. The Serbian average is slightly higher, so there are 4,8 marriages per thousand inhabitants in Serbia.
Sources: BBC in Serbian/021.rs
