There were 803 civil marriages last year, accounting for 34.3 per cent of the 2,350 marriages which took place in Malta and Gozo.

However, the majority of civil marriages are non-Maltese marrying non-Maltese, as has always been the case over the past years. Only 78 of the 803 civil marriages were between Maltese couples, representing 9.7 per cent of all civil marriages.

The Civil Marriage Act came into force in 1975. At that time there were 48 civil marriages in all.

Maltese couples still opt strongly for a Church marriage. In fact, 95 per cent of the cases - when both the bride and groom were Maltese - were celebrated in Church.

In cases of mixed marriages, where either the bride or the groom was a foreigner, 88 per cent opted for a civil marriage.

Of the 1,547 marriages celebrated in Church, 1,445, or 94.1 per cent, involved Maltese partners.

There were 18 cases where both the bride and the groom were Irish and 12 marriages where both partners were English. Most of the remaining marriages were contracted between Maltese grooms and foreign brides while in 35 cases, the bride was Maltese while the groom was a foreigner.

There were 110 more marriages overall than the previous year.

The lowest ever number of marriages in a single year over the past half century was 1,747 in 1950 whereas the highest, at 3,510 marriages, was in 1974.

In the last 50 years, the most prevalent age group of both spouses was the 20-24 age group.

There has always been a link between the age at marriage of different socio-economic groups and their respective marriage rates. Over the last 50 years, the low marriage rate for farmer/agricultural workers was associated with a median age at marriage of 26.4 years; whereas the high marriage rates of unskilled and skilled workers was associated with low median marriage ages of 24 and 23.9 years respectively.