The Central Statistics Office has released data on marriages in 2023, and my brain is filled with dopamine hits from my all time favourite obsessions – DATA!

There is a lot of information to process. So let’s start small.

What kind of ceremonies did couples choose in 2023?

In 2023, about 36% of couples chose Roman Catholic ceremonies, this was followed by Civil Marriages (32%) in second place, Other Religious Denominations (16%) in third place, and Humanist Association of Ireland (8%) at fourth place.

Nature of CeremoniesWeddings%Roman Catholic725635.37%Civil marriages647431.56%Other religious denominations328115.99%The Humanist Association16147.87%The Spiritualist Union of Ireland16047.82%Church of Ireland2421.18%Presbyterian420.20%TABLE 1: Wedding Trends in 2023

In Which direction did the tide flow after all?

While this shows the preference of couple in 2023 (which is a phenomenal piece of information in itself), it does not really show the “trend”. It does not show the “shift in tide”. So let’s look at what couples chose in the last ten years. For ease, to begin with, we will look at the trends for top four contenders this year.

In the last ten years, Roman Catholic marriages have dropped by 44%. We can see that Civil Marriages have been a fairly consistent with 6% increase in last ten years. Humanist Association weddings have increased by 44%, while Other Religious Denominations have increased by a whooping 65%.

YearRoman CatholicCivil marriagesOther religious denominationsThe Humanist Association201312921609611382014130726167566895201512486615683112642016121405588999143720171121958901011161620181002758611009176620198863601211311813202032953779686701202167215659139213942022937657672816205320237256647432811614Grand Total107376634491486014553TABLE 2: Wedding Trends in last ten years

Roman Catholic weddings are still a majority. But there is a fast pacing shift in preference. People are looking for alternate options. I guess that is where organisations like Entheos Ireland steps in. We do have a fabulous team of celebrants to chose from (yours truly included, of course). This is exactly what makes the job or vocation so exciting – to be a part of social change.

I will pause at this junction and will refrain from bombarding you with more information. I will go back and look at all tables published today.

There is a lot of exciting information in those tables. Do check them out. I do wish there was a way to decipher the meta data of “Other Religious Denominations” to see what that comprises of, and what percentage of that was contributed by my fellow colleagues at Entheos Ireland. That would be a fun data to analyse, don’t you think?

End Notes:

For the purposes of transparency, the data for all weddings in last ten years is as follows:

YearChurch of IrelandCivil marriagesOther religious denominationsPresbyterianRoman CatholicThe Humanist AssociationThe Spiritualist Union of Ireland2013453609611387212921201444561675668113072895819201539361568317312486126482220163725588999691214014379652017379589010116411219161610832018323586110096210027176613412019289601211315388631813151220201143779686203295701614202119256591392386721139413212022284576728165993762053220020232426474328142725616141604Grand Total348663449148606331073761455312281TABLE 3: Wedding Trends in last 10 years (full table)

https://priyangee.com/2024/04/26/wedding-trends-in-2023/

#Solemniser #Celebrant #Wedding #EntheosIreland #Weddings #marriages #marriage #gettingMarriedInIndia

I got a rare chance to do an Indian-Irish naming ceremony in a gorgeous back garden in County Wexford. I loved every second of that ceremony. One of the ceremony enhancers was the thaali ceremony from Bengal. That is the same ceremony enhancer I did for my first rice ceremony - which is the equivalent of naming ceremony.

It is believed that whatever the child chooses that day from the tray is an indication of what the child will be interested in when they grow up. Legend has it that I chose a pen. Make what you must with that information 😂

Video Description: A brown person wearing red kurta and white churidar, with shoulder length open curly hair, wearing sunglasses. They are holding a black folder and speaking in a garden. There are shots of things on the table i.e. a basket with notes, and a tray/thaali full with objects - ball, seashell, anchor, pen, book.

Music: Cheerful Ukele by Alfred Holgersson(Holfix) from Youtube Audio Library.
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#ChildNamingCeremony
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Fun Fact Friday 4: Who is officiating same sex marriages in Ireland?

Now that we know the number of weddings of queer couples, who has been officiating them so far?

Swipe right to see the overall trend. Open link in stories to see the yearly trend. Again, this is also based on data collected by CSO from 2016-2022. The change in trend is particularly interesting. There is a steep rise in the preference of "Other religious denominations" - where celebrants like me and everyone in @entheosireland fall under. It is nice to see that people have more options than they did in 2016.


Image Description:
Image 1: Celebrate with Priyangee: Who is officiating same sex marriages in Ireland?

Image 2: Line graph of the data.

Civil Ceremonies dropped 64.23% from 2016 to 2022. They performed 2550 in 2016. This dropped to 1581 in 2017, 1251 in 2018, 1194 in 2019, 684 in 2020, 984 in 2021 and 912 in 2022.

Humanists Association weddings increased 7% from 2016 to 2022. They officiated 291 weddings in 2016, 333 in 2017, 363 in 2018, 300 in 2019, 114 in 2020, 204 in 2021 and 312 in 2022.

Spiritualists Association weddings increased 35% from 2016 to 2022. They performed 219 in 2016, 228 in 2017, 267 in 2018, 318 in 2019, 81 in 2020, 177 in 2021 and 297 in 2022.

Other religious denominations weddings increased by 208.33% from 2016 to 2022. They performed 108 in 2016, 135 in 2017, 111 in 2018, 108 in 2019, 63 in 2020, 135 in 2021, 333 in 2022.

#CelebrateWithPriyangee
#Weddings
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#IrishWeddings
#GettingMarriedInIreland
#EntheosIreland
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#IndiansInIreland
#indianladiesinireland

I am offering 2 subsidised ceremonies- weddings, child naming, vow renewals for 2026.

You must:
> identify as queer;
> be unable to afford a celebrant;
> have your ceremony in County Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford.

It will be booked on a first come, first serve basis.

I will give all proceeds (after deducting basic costs - eg travel) to @TENI

For more information:

https://entheos.ie/directories/priyangee-guha/

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#EntheosIreland

#PrideMonth
#Neuropride

#PrideIsAProtest