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Last year saw a total of 28,236 marriages in Finland, or slightly more than a thousand fewer than in the previous 12 months. The figures come out in Statistics Finland's demographic change data, published today. The number of couples tying the knot during the first years of the 20th century has varied from year to year quite dramatically.
Last year, the average age of women marrying for the first time was 29.7 years, and for men it was 32.1 years.
A total of 13,255 marriages came to the end of the road in divorce last year, just over 100 fewer than in 2005. There have been only marginal changes in the numbers of divorces in recent years.
In the realm of same-sex partnerships, 191 were registered in 2006. Of these, 84 were homososexual male couples, and 107 lesbian couples. In 2005, the combined total was 200.
There were 30 divorces among same-sex partnerships in 2006.
According to the newspaper Keskisuomalainen, it also appears that marriages between partners of different nationalities are on the increase. The numbers have risen over the past decade by as much as 30 per cent. Two years ago the figure topped 3,000, while in 1996 it was 700 fewer.
Finnish men tend to marry foreign women rather more often than Finnish women take foreign men as husbands. The wives in these former cases come predominantly from Russia, Thailand, or Estonia.
The Keskisuomalainen article suggests that in particular the number of Thai brides has increased.
Finnish women, on the other hand, tend more often than not to marry British, North American, or Turkish men.
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