MARRIAGE RECORD SLIP DOWN TO 7 PERCENT WHILE BIRTH UP BY 2.0 IN 2008

MARRIAGE RECORD SLIP DOWN TO 7 PERCENT WHILE BIRTH UP BY 2.0 IN 2008

Registered marriages totaled 486,514 in 2008, a decrease by 0.7 percent There were 486,514 marriages registered in the country in 2008, a decrease of 0.7 percent from the 2007 count of 490,054.

Among regions, NCR top the list with 15.8 percent of the total marriages in the country, while the least was recorded in ARMM with 0.5 percent.

Women preferred to marry at ages 20-24 while men at ages 25-29. More than one-third (37.5%) of bride got married at ages 20-24, while for the groom (35.3%) at ages 25-29.

Teen marriages declined by 0.04 percent from previous year. A total of 65,958 teen marriages recorded or about 13.6 percent of the total marriages in the country, a decline of 0.04 percent from the 2007 count of 69,052. Teen brides are four times more than the teen grooms.

Civil rites still preferred by Filipinos. Marriages celebrated through civil rites numbered 199,680 or 41.0 percent of the total marriages reported during the year. Wedding ceremonies in Roman Catholic churches was the second highest with 176,389 or 36.3 percent of the total reported marriages.

Compared to the data a year earlier (2007), it can be observed that the number and percentages of marriages under civil rite and in Roman Catholic ceremonies decreased in 2008. On the one hand, it can be noted that marriages in Islam, tribal and other religious rites increased in number and percentages from 2007 to 2008.

In a related vital statistical record on births:

Registered live births rise to 1.78 million. There were 1,784,316 live births registered in the country in 2008, an increase of 2.0 percent from the 2007 count of 1,749,878. Of these, 52.0 percent were males (928,080) and 48.0 percent were females (856,236), resulting to a sex ratio of 108.4 males per 100 females.

NCR records the highest occurrence of births. Of the 1.78 million births, around 288 thousand or 16.2 percent of the total births occurred in the National Capital Region (NCR), while the least was recorded in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with 14.9 thousand births or 0.8 percent of the total.

Teenage mothers increase by 7.64 percent. A total of 186,527 births were born to teenage mothers (under 20 years of age), an increase of about 7.64 percent from the previous year’s count of 173,282. The number of births born to teenage mothers (186,527) was five times greater than the number of births born to teenage fathers (39,217).

Illegitimate babies up by 12.5 percent. There were 668,841 illegitimate births registered in 2008, an increase of 12.5 percent from the 2007 count of 594,744. Of the total births (1,784,316) registered in 2008, 37.5 percent were illegitimate. Around 40.0 percent of illegitimate babies were born to mothers between the ages 20-24.

Four in five babies born to women under age 20 are illegitimate. Majority (79.2 %) of babies born to women under 20 of age were illegitimate. 

Posted in: Press Release