According to a recently published report by FUNCAS, a Spanish socio-economic think-tank, in 2020 the pandemic caused a sharp decline of the marriage rates of European countries, especially western, majority-Catholic ones.
Spain experienced a 46% decline, Italy 47%, Portugal 43%, and Ireland a staggering 53%. This is significantly higher than the decline experienced in Germany (10%), while France approaches her southern neighbours at 34%.
And yet, the sharp 2019-2020 fall is exceptional in intensity. It merely represents an extreme case of a general, decades-long trajectory of falling marriage rates.
Interestingly, homosexual marriages did not decline as much as unions between partners of different genders.
According to FUNCAS, factors contributing to this phenomenon refer to the integration of women into the workforce and the erosion of institutional structures incentivizing marriage. Due to the pandemic, marriage requirements to access certain social services had been dropped.
See FUNCAS’ Focus on Spanish Society report here.
