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Significant increase in marriages in 2022

Signifi cant increase in marriages in 2022

Is marriage getting more and more attractive? What about registered partnerships? With the fi rst seven months of 2022 showing an increase in marriages compared to the same period in the previous three years, one can only wonder about the reasons behind these trends. Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the leading statistical offi ce in the Netherlands, lifts the veil, so to speak, on these questions. Catching up after Covid After two tough pandemic years, many more couples decided to celebrate love and get married. The number of marriages carried out up to and including July this year was more than 40,000. In the previous two years, when Covid-19 hit the world hardest, the number of people who said yes was signifi cantly lower. Last year, under 30,000 marriages were carried out in the same period, while the same seven months in 2020 saw only about 25,000 marriages.

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Not only has the number increased after Covid, but even 2019, the year before the pandemic, had fewer married couples than this year, with under 36,000 weddings performed from January to July.

Why is everyone getting married? Tanja Traag, Chief Sociologist at Statistics Netherlands, explains there are probably two reasons behind this increase in the number of marriages. The fi rst thought is that many weddings were cancelled due to Covid. It was not possible to get married for a long time in 2020 and 2021, or at least not to have a large party with friends and family. Therefore, many couples had to cancel plans or postpone their saying yes until it was possible again in 2022.

The second reason is that 2022 had a viral wedding date: 22 February 2022. On this exact date, nearly 1,200 couples tied the knot, according to the statistics agency. Not only this date was especially popular, but the entire month of February saw many people getting married, with a total of 4,100 marriages signed, sealed and delivered. In previous years, February has usually seen an average of 2,800 couples getting married, so the number of marriages this year is a signifi cant increase, even comparing to peak days in the popular wedding months of May, June and September.

Marriage vs registered partnerships Registered partnerships were fewer this year compared to the previous years. According to Traag, a partnership registration is often made from a more practical point of view, usually accompanied by another signifi cant event. For example, 53 per cent of couples who entered a partnership in recent years recently had a child together or moved to a new house.

And although the popularity of the registered partnership has been on the rise since 2014, during the period from January to July 2022 there were fewer registered partnerships compared to the same period in 2021. This tendency is interesting, seeing that just as Covid hit in 2020 and marriages decreased, the trend of registered partnerships actually increased.

Registered partnerships saw a slight fall in numbers during the fi rst lockdown in 2020, but not as signifi cant as the fall in the number of marriages. In 2021, even more couples decided to have a registered partnership in the registry offi ce. Similarities and differences Getting married or registering a partnership is often done for practical reasons, for example when a child is involved. But what exactly happens when either decision is made?

There are some similarities: one person can take the last name of a partner, to be addressed by government authorities with that name. Thus, the couples need each other’s permission for particular decisions, such as selling their house. In case of a lawsuit, married and registered partners won’t have to testify against each other. Both persons are obliged to provide for each other’s livelihood. Finally, each individual is the legal heir of their partner.

But there are, of course, some differences between a registered partnership and marriage. First, the romantic ‘yes’ given to each other at a wedding is not mandatory for a registered partnership. Second, a marriage is recognized worldwide, whilst a registered partnership is not necessarily. If no children are involved, a couple can terminate the registered partnership out of court, which can’t happen with a marriage.

Thus, couples who needed to set their affairs in order in 2020 and 2021 are likely to have chosen a registered partnership. Those who wanted to marry for romantic reasons postponed their marriages until 2022, so they could celebrate their love in front of a large gathering of family and friends.

Written by Bárbara Luque Alanís

Prepare for a long war

‘I might have to join the gym, just so I can enjoy hot showers,’ saysid Jose upon receiving his renewed energy contract with the increased tariffs – fi ve times as much as he was paying before. Despite his considerable income, he and his partner have stopped taking long showers, they no longer use the clothes dryer and run the washing machine only after 11 at night, when energy tariffs are lower. He has even gone to the extent of unplugging all standby electrical appliances such as his coffee machine and his PlayStation.

Micha has stopped using his electric car and gone back to using his old petrol-fueled, carbon-emitting car. If weather permits, he rides his bike to work. Even though they are a six-fi gure income household, he and his partner no longer shop at Albert Heijn. Micha and Jose are not alone in their worries about infl ation, making them cut costs wherever possible. The entire country Netherlands, as well as Europe, if not the whole world, are feeling the effects of the Ukraine war on their wallets.

The month of August recorded the sharpest spike in infl ation – 13.6%, meaning that the average consumer price level in August was 13.6 percent higher than in the same month a year ago.

Anyone who was expecting any sort of respite from the ever-increasing prices will be sorely disappointed, as Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra tried to prepare minds for a long war, in his speech delivered earlier this month at the opening of the academic year at Leiden University.

While minister Hoekstra tried to deliver the bad news in as positive a way as possible, what is of more concerns for Dutch citizens is that the infl ation rate in the Netherlands is the highest of all EU countries. The European infl ation is driven by the high energy prices. With Russia shutting off the Nordstream gas supplies indefi nitely, gas prices may rise sharply, to more than 300 euros per megawatt hour.

Although the Netherlands has been able to offset lower Russian gas supplies by additional imports from Norway, the UK and the US, but consumption will have to fall in case of a harsh winter. Many schools have already lowered the thermostat by more than 2 degrees and ask parents to dress their children in warmer clothes.

The high infl ation is not limited to energy, but also other items, including food, consumer goods and of course transportation costs. The number of products that have seen a price increase of more than 2 percent has increased rapidly in 2022. Core infl ation, infl ation excluding food and energy, has also risen sharply and stood at 5.2 percent in August, well above the infl ation target of 2 percent set by the European Central Bank (ECB). The infl ation forecast for 2022 has been revised yet again and is now estimated at 11.4%.

On one thing we can all agree with minister Hoekstra: war in Ukraine requires patience, determination and sacrifi ce. There is no alternative to perseverance; we cannot give in to Putin’s extortion tactics.

Written by Priyanka Sharma