Marriage numbers in NZ continue declining trend

The numbers, released on May 4, revealed there were 17,481 marriages and civil unions for couples living in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2025 – 3 per cent lower than in 2024, when there were 18,033 marriages and civil unions.

Stats NZ’s population estimates, projections and coverage spokesperson Rebekah Hennessey said the figures continued the general downward trend seen in marriage numbers.

“The marriage rate peaked in 1971 and has generally been falling since,” Ms Hennessey said.

In 2025, there were 7.6 marriages per 1000 people eligible to marry – around half of the rate in 2000 (15.5 per 1000), and around one-sixth of the peak rate of 45.5 per 1000 in 1971.

Divorces also ticked up 5 per cent to 7887 – and for the first time, the divorce rate exceeded the marriage rate, though Stats NZ noted the two figures use different base populations, Stuff reported.

According to a 2019 UN Women report, Australia and New Zealand topped the table on nearly every measure of marriage’s decline, stated The Spinoff in a summary article.

Among women in their late 40s, 14.1 per cent in Australasia had never married, against a worldwide average of just 4.3 per cent. The pace of change has also been the fastest: between 1990 and 2010, the share of never-married women in their late 40s rose by 9.7 percentage points in Australia and New Zealand – the largest increase of any region.

According to the report, people in Australasia also marry later than in the other regions, at an average age of 31.5 for men and 30 for women.

Pope Leo XIV has called the presidents of the world’s episcopal conferences to Rome this October to seek a response to the issue of marriage and family, which he considers crucial not only for the Church but also for society.

The Vatican organised a study day last month in preparation for the October gathering. The day was devoted to the formation of priests in accompanying “young people, engaged couples and married couples in faith”.

Fr Andrea Bozzolo, rector of the Pontifical Salesian University, told EWTN News that the Church should “not blame” young people who ask to marry after living together, but it also should not “trivialise” premarital cohabitation, because “it is not the correct way” to arrive at the altar.

He also called on the Church to break with stereotypes that present love as if it were “a simple feeling”.

“Love has ontological value – and not merely psychological value – and that is why marriage is a privileged vehicle for the biblical revelation of the face of God,” he said.

One current problem among couples, he said, is the tendency to absolutise the relationship and place expectations on the spousal bond that the other person cannot sustain alone.

“We cannot place the entire responsibility for our happiness on our spouse, because he or she will disappoint us. For that, we have Jesus, the true messiah,” Fr Bozzolo said.

Only from a well-grounded faith, he emphasised, is it possible to live marriage in a healthy, realistic way that is open to gratuitousness, without making the other person the ultimate source of meaning.

FULL STORY

Couples tying the knot continued to fall in 2025 – Stats NZ (1News)

New Zealand is leading the world in not getting married (The Spinoff)

Vatican prepares Pope Leo XIV summit on marriage crisis (EWTN News)