XN000022-1974-01-19 — Page 5

Saturday, January 19, 1974

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RECORD NUMBER OF MARRIAGES REGISTERED IN 1973

The number of marriages registered in 1973 reached a new record

total of 30,436, being 3,172 more than the previous record of 27,264 in

1972, the Registrar General, Mr. W. Hume, announced today.

These figures apply to all marriages in 1973, which was the second

wher marriages might be contracted only in accordance with the

Marriage Ordinance.

full year

The record total of registered marriages included 2,838 marriages

between parties already previously married in other ways as compared with

2,795 marriages of this category in 1972. Excluding these 'remarriagos', the

total number of registered marriages increased by 3,129 from 24,469 to 27,598,"

Mr. Hume added.

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The new record may have been partly due to the fact that the current

lunar year, which began on February 3 last year, is a normal year with a

First Day of Spring (Lap Chun) whereas the preceding lunar year had no first

Day of Spring and was therefore a blind year not considered auspicious for

marriage by Chinese. However, the major factor contributing to the increase is

believed to be the structure of the population, which has a growing number of

persons within the more popular age groups for marriage, i.e. 21 to 24 for women

and 25 to 29 for men.

There was an increase in the number of church marriages in 1973, the

total being 2,776 as compared with 2,258 in 1972. However, most of the registered marriages were, as usual, celebrated at the marriage registries, the total of

such marriages reaching a new record of 27,660, an increase of 2,654 over the

1972 figure.

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