Rise in Scottish marriages is like 'post-war boom'

Scott and Ashleigh McCabe from Glasgow were one of 30,000 weddings

A wedding "boom" saw more than 30,000 couples get married in Scotland last year, new figures have revealed.

The stats released by National Records of Scotland (NRS) were 24% higher than 2021 and the biggest total since 2012.

NRS statisticians compared it to the post-war wedding booms in 1919 and 1945. It is believed the rise is largely due to the cancellation of weddings during the Covid pandemic.

Figures showed there was also a 2% drop in the number of births in Scotland.

NRS Head of Vital Events Statistics, Daniel Burns, said: "Following the global health emergency these statistics show us the scale of the disruption.

"Only the two world wars have had more impact on the number of marriages taking place."

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There was also 630 civil partnerships registered in 2022, the highest number since 2007.

Scott and Ashleigh McCabe from Glasgow, who married in December last year, got engaged during the Covid pandemic.

Ashleigh told BBC Scotland: "I heard so many horror stories during the pandemic of weddings getting cancelled so that spurred me on to think everything's back to normal now let's just go for it."

"It was all happening, it was a busy year. I went to three weddings, my best friend got married the month before us, I think everyone had the same idea."

Humanist celebrant Jennifer married Dave and Suzanne on the banks of Loch Tay

The Humanist Society of Scotland said it held the highest number of wedding ceremonies in its history.

Humanish celebrant Jennifer Buchan said the year was "extraordinarily busy" as she conducted over 80 weddings alone.

She said: "The catch up was enormous, people had postponed twice, three times. I had one couple who were on their fifth date"

Jennifer conducted weddings across Scotland from the banks of Loch Tay, to a cave on the isle of Bute, to the pitch at St Mirren Park.

On one occasion she even conducted two ceremonies in a single day.

Low fertility rate

She added: "For the people who had been postponed, their weddings didn't change but there was such a relief it was happening, the anticipation was fever pitch.

"For the people who hadn't planned, wee weddings became popular because couples had a chance to really think about what they wanted."

The NRS report of Annual Births, Deaths, Marriages showed there were 30,033 marriages.

It also highlighted that Scotland's fertility rate has fallen to a new low.

The report showed there were 46,959 births in Scotland last year - which was 2% lower than in 2021.

There were 62,941 deaths in 2022, which is down by 1% on the previous year.

Daniel Burns from the NRS added: "There were 15,982 more deaths than births. This measure is sometimes called "natural change".

"The last time Scotland had more births than deaths was in 2014. Scotland's overall population has continued to grow since this time through inward migration alone."