The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the average age Irish men and women are marrying is now the oldest on record.
New CSO data reveals that the average age of Irish grooms last year was 36.4 and 34.4 for brides.
Though 230 people under the age of 20 also got married last year, while 760 people aged 60 or above also married.
Fifty years ago, the average age of grooms in 1968 was 28.4 while the average age for brides was 25.5.
The figures also show that 87.2 per cent of the 21,053 marriages last year, which was almost 1,000 fewer than in 2017, were the first marriage for both the bride and groom, with 18,581 (91.1 per cent) grooms and 18,881 (92.6 per cent) brides solemnising their first marriage.
Religious ceremonies accounted for 61.2 per cent of all marriages last year, with the majority, 10,027 or just under 50 per cent, opting for Catholic ceremonies. A further 1.5 per cent or 323 of marriages took place in the Church of Ireland.
But the figures for those opting for a sacramental catholic marriage is down substantially from 2015, when there was 12,486 (56.7 per cent) Catholic marriage ceremonies. That year religious ceremonies accounted for 66.3 per cent of marriages.
Friday and Saturday continue to be the most popular days for couples to get married, while Sundays and Mondays remain the least popular days of the week to marry.
As in previous years, August was the most popular month for marriage ceremonies while January continued to be the least popular month.
The CSO figures also show that 664 of the 21,053 marriages last year were same-sex marriages of which 372 were male unions and 292 were female unions.
In February, Bishop Denis Nulty, President of Accord told the Tablet that figures for 2018 show that 16,048 individuals attended marriage preparation courses with the organisation last year.
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