The data: What is the average age of marriage and which city has the most single people?

August 16, 2024   

In honor of Tu B'Av: According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, 51,643 couples were married in Israel in religious institutions authorized to perform marriages in 2022. This was an increase of 0.11% compared to the number of couples married in 2021. It's crazy what awaits you in Jerusalem in the meantime: how will you know? Jump in About 72% of these are Jewish couples, an increase of 1.3% compared to the previous year. There is also an increase in the percentage of couples living together but not married: from 2.5% in 2000 to 7.2% in 2022. As a result of the decline in the number of marriages in the Jewish population, the percentage of singles among Jewish men aged 45-49 increased from 6% at the end of 2000 to 14% at the end of 2022. The percentage of singles among Jewish women in a similar age range increased over the same period from 6% to 12%, respectively. In large cities with more than 100,000 residents, the percentage of singles aged 45-49 ranged from 4.5% in Beit Shemesh to 34.2% in Tel Aviv-Yafo. The percentage of single women aged 49-45 ranged from 2.2% in Beit Shemesh to 30.6% in Tel Aviv-Yafo. And what are the average marriage ages of Jewish couples? Among Jewish grooms who married for the first time, the average age was 27.3, while the average marriage age among Jewish brides who married for the first time was 25.6. As a result of the increase in the marriage age in the Jewish population, the percentage of singles among Jewish men aged 25-29 increased from 57% at the end of 2000 to 64% at the end of 2022. The percentage of single women among Jewish women aged 25-29 increased from 36% to 51%, respectively, during the same period. In large cities, where more than 100,000 residents live, the percentage of single men aged 25-29 ranges from 19.4% in Bnei Brak to 88.3% in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. The percentage of single women aged 25-29 ranges from 14.1% in Bnei Brak to 80.6% in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. And what about age differences? The common pattern in first marriages is that the man is older than the woman (66% among Jews and 86% among Muslims). The age difference was negative (meaning the bride is older than the groom) in 15% of the Jewish couples and 6% of the Muslim couples. In 19% of the Jewish couples and 8% of the Muslim couples, there was no age difference at all. Among Muslim couples, it is more common for the man to be significantly older than the woman. In 51% of the couples who married, the man was 4 years or more older than the woman, compared to 20% among Jewish couples. In 88.7% of the Jewish marriages in 2022 (88.5% in 2021), both partners were married for the first time (single to single); 5.2% of the Jewish marriages were of a divorced man to a divorced woman; 3.2% were of a divorced man to a single woman; and 2.1% of a single to a divorced woman.