More than 6,000 marriages are conducted in the City of Manila

The National Capital Region (NCR) recorded over 30,000 marriages in 2020. Out of this number, 6.070 (18.57%) occurred in the City of Manila—making it the second to Quezon City in terms of highest number of occurrences in NCR.

Figure 1 above illustrates the number of marriages occurred in the City of Manila from 2006 to 2020. Over the years, there have been fluctuations in the number of registered marriages. In 2006, the number of registered marriages was recorded at 6,521. Between 2006 to 2012, the number of marriages went up by almost 7,000.

Sometime in 2013, the number fell by 12.7 percent. Meanwhile from 2014 to 2020, the number of registered marriages was decreasing. It is in 2020 when the number decrease significantly by 42.4 percent compared to previous year. Years 2012 and 2020 mark as the year with the highest and lowest number of marriages registered in the City of Manila, respectively.

First quarter records highest number of marriages

Figure 2 shows the number of marriages in the city by month. On the average, 505 marriages occurred every month of 2020. February recorded the highest number of marriages with 1,181 (19.5%); followed by January and December with 959 (15.8%) and 951 (15.7%), respectively. On the other hand, April and May had the lowest number of registered marriages with no more than 100.

Moreover, the result indicates that most marriages in the City of Manila occurred in the first quarter of the year with 2,542 (41.9%).

Six out of 10 marriages are through Civil Ceremony

Marriages in the Philippines were celebrated based on religious and/or traditional beliefs such as Roman Catholic Rites, Muslim Tradition, Tribal Ceremony, and other religious rites. In addition, marriages can also be conducted through a civil ceremony which can only be officiated by the consul, incumbent mayor, judge, or in case of articulo mortis, by ship captain or airplane chief.

In 2020, 3,517 (57.9%) marriages were conducted through Civil Ceremony while 812 (13.4%) were officiated in Roman Catholic Churches. The remaining were accounted Muslim tradition or other religious rites with 1,741 (28.7%).

On the average, women marry at the age of 29; men at 31

Based on the results of the 2020 Vital Statistics on Marriages, in the City of Manila, women married as young as 17 years old while men at 18.

Figure 3 demonstrates the number of marriages by the age group of the groom and the bride. Most men (1,978 or 32.6%) and women (2,376 or 32.6%) married between ages 25 to 29. However, on the average, men and women married at ages 31 and 29, respectively.

The results further revealed that only few people wed as they get older.

One out of 10 marriages are transnational

Out of 6,070 marriages registered in the City of Manila, 5,407 were found to be between both Filipinos. Moreover, the records show that 557 Filipino women and 26 Filipino men found their love with other nationality. It only shows that more Filipino women married other nationality compared to Filipino men.

Not more than 50 marriages were registered late

The Certificate of Marriage of an ordinary marriage must be registered within 15 days following the solemnization while marriages exempt from license requirement have a prescribed period of 30 days.

In 2020, 48 Certificates of Marriage were registered beyond the reglementary period.

(SGD.) Danilo R. Cubinar
Chief Statistical Specialist