Fewer Filipinos are getting married, while more couples are choosing to live together without tying the knot, reflecting changing attitudes toward relationships, family formation and financial realities.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show a steady decline in registered marriages over the past decade.
From more than 429,000 marriages recorded in 2014, the number fell by 13.5 percent to just over 371,000 in 2024.
For the Commission on Population and Development (CPD), the trend reflects a complex mix of economic pressures and shifting personal priorities.
Lolito Tacardon, deputy executive director of the CPD, said many couples are postponing, even foregoing, marriage because of the costs associated with weddings.
“Some of those couples would prefer either delaying or hindi na nagpapakasal, and they just get into living arrangements because of the cost, for example, of weddings, of marriages, even civil. Church wedding, it’s really costly,” he said.
Tacardon said others choose to prioritize education or career advancement before settling down.
“It’s kind of a mutually beneficial set up for them. But I think sa ibang studies naman, lumalabas that sometimes they really pursue cohabitation because of unplanned pregnancies din,” he said.
Filipinos are marrying later
While fewer Filipinos are getting married, those who do are doing so later than midlife.
PSA data show that most newlyweds are between 25 and 29 years old.
The median age at first marriage reached 30 for men and 28 for women in 2024, or at least two years older than figures recorded in the 2015 Civil Registration and Vital Statistics.
According to the CPD, the increase in the median age suggests that more Filipinos are entering marriage later, reflecting changing educational, employment and economic circumstances.
Among the regions, Calabarzon recorded the highest number of registered marriages in 2024 with nearly 55,000, followed by the National Capital Region with 48,448 and Central Luzon with 42,227.
Civil marriages accounted for 41.8 percent of all registered unions in 2024, overtaking Roman Catholic Church weddings, which made up only 31.7 percent of registrations.
Non-traditional families
The decline in marriage has coincided with a rise in non-traditional family arrangements.
In 2020, some 12 million Filipinos were living in cohabitation, common-law or live-in arrangements.
Meanwhile, the proportion of women aged 15 to 49 who had entered such unions has quadrupled over the past three decades — from just five percent in 1993 to 20.5 percent in 2025.
The CPD said the increase reflected changing patterns in how Filipinos form families.
Jose Roy Avena, Assistant Country Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said the Philippines is following a trend seen across many parts of the world.
“It’s also a global thing, and it extends, not only to making the decision to marry, pero to the decision whether or not to have children at all and how many they would like to have,” he said.
The changing family landscape is also reflected in birth statistics.
Civil Registration and Vital Statistics data for 2023 show that more children were born to parents outside of marriage than to married couples.
More than 842,000 births were registered outside formal unions, compared with just over 605,000 births among married parents.
For Avena, the focus should not be on whether couples marry, but on ensuring they can freely make decisions about their families.
“In the end, it’s an issue of the individual, and it should not be about how many we are, but women and couples are able to make the decision on whether or not they want to have children, when they would like to have children, if they want to space it out, or if they do not want to have children at all,” Avena said.
The CPD echoed that view, saying that regardless of whether couples choose marriage or cohabitation, they should have access to opportunities and support systems that allow them to provide a safe, secure and nurturing environment for their children. (ABS-CBN News)