Marriage is losing its lustre for many in the Philippines, with an increasing number of couples starting families out of wedlock, the government census office said yesterday.

More than 37 per cent of the 1.78 million babies born in Asia’s Roman Catholic outpost in 2008 had unmarried mothers, it said in a statement, citing results of the latest population census.

This was 12.5 per cent higher than the previous year, and compared with a two per cent increase for all births, the census office said.

A growing number of Filipinos now treat marriage as an option, rather than a requirement, for starting families, said Nene Baligad, a member of a unit of the National Statistics Office that licenses people who officiate weddings.

“Nowadays, some couples just live in and only get married after having four or five children,” she said.