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POPULATION
The Marriage Ordinance does not apply to non-Christian cus- tomary marriages duly celebrated according to the personal law and religion of the parties, and such marriages do not have to be registered under that Ordinance. No statistics of such marriages are therefore available, but it is believed that the number has steadily decreased in recent years as a result of registered marriages becoming more and more popular.
The Marriage Reform Ordinance provides that all marriages entered into in Hong Kong on and after October 7, 1971, shall imply the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others and may be contracted only in accordance with the Marriage Ordinance. It declares valid certain customary marriages and validates certain others, known as modern marriages, provided in each case they have been entered into before October 7, 1971. The ordinance also makes provision for post-registration of these customary and modern marriages and for dissolution of such marriages by mutual consent. During the year 438 customary and 61 modern marriages were post-registered, including 25 in the New Territories.
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