Tu B’Av (Hebrew: the fifteenth of the month of Av), which took place on Thursday this week, is a minor Jewish holiday, representing the national hope for a glowing future after the somber 9 of Av which mourns our past destructions. In modern-day Israel, Tu B’Av is celebrated as a holiday of love, reminiscent of Valentine’s Day. It is reputed to be a “great day for weddings.”
With that in mind, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics issued data regarding marriages in 2016, with the expectation that these data match last and this year. And so, without further I Do, here are the love stats:
Marriages in Israel in 2016
52,809 couples were married in the qualified religious institutions, some 73% of them Jewish.
The crude marriage rate was 6.2 for every 1,000 Israelis, which is among the highest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
The average marriage age for all the grooms who were married for the first time was 27.5 (27.8 for Jews).
The average marriage age for all the brides who were married for the first time was 25.1 (25.9 for Jews).
As a result of the increase in the marriage age of the Jewish population, the percentage of single Jewish men in the 25-29 age group rose from 28% at the end of 1970 to 62% at the end of 2016. The percentage of unmarried Jewish women ages 25-29 rose during the same period from 13% to 46%.
As a result of the decline in the number of marriages in the Jewish population, the percentage of Jewish men ages 45-49 who never married increased in the Jewish population from 3% at the end of 1970 to 12% at the end of 2016. The Percentage of single Jewish women ages 45-49 rose in the same period from 2% to 10%.
Marriages of Israelis abroad in 2016
In 2016, approximately 9,031 marriages which were conducted abroad and in which at least one spouse was an Israeli citizen were reported to the Interior Ministry’s Population Registry.
In 42% of these marriages (3,792 couples), both spouses were Israeli.
In 40% of these marriages (3,589 couples), only men were registered in the population registry and in 18% (1,650) only the women were Israeli.