Five years after marriage equality comes divorce equality – or at least the start – Sydney Morning Herald

However, the proportion varies in different areas – religious ministers typically officiate about a quarter of marriages in NSW, the highest rate of any state or territory.

ABS director of health and vital statistics James Eynstone-Hinkins said marriage numbers in NSW and Victoria were again dampened by COVID-19 restrictions in 2021, although they recovered from the record low of 2020.

“Marriages in other states and territories were less impacted, with numbers in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and [the] Northern Territory almost returning to pre-pandemic levels,” he said. In an ordinary year, more than 110,000 couples marry nationwide.

The crude divorce rate appeared to increase in 2021, to 2.2 divorces per 1000 people, compared with 1.9 or 2.0 in previous years. However, the ABS said the Federal Circuit and Family Court advised the higher number was partly related to administrative changes to speed up divorce applications.

In 2021, the median age for men to marry was 29.6 years, while the median age at separation was 41.9 and the median age at divorce was 45.9.

For women, the median age at marriage was 27.3, the median age at separation was 39.1 and the median age at divorce was 43.

Tuesday will mark five years since the ABS announced the results of the same-sex marriage postal survey, ending years of political turmoil in which both major parties failed to legalise marriage equality despite widespread public support.

The “yes” vote of 61.6 per cent in the voluntary mail-in poll – with a participation rate of 80 per cent – led the federal parliament to make the change in the final weeks of 2017.

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The ABS data shows nearly 18,000 same-sex couples married in the first four years since it became legal. While the initial burst of same-sex weddings – 6538 in 2018 – has dissipated, the number is going up again with the end of COVID-19 restrictions, and should by now exceed 20,000 nationally.

Figures from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages show there were 1061 same-sex marriages in that state between January 1 and September 30 this year, more than the 824 registered in all of 2021.

In total, 7142 same-sex couples have married in NSW since the law was changed – 4008 female and 3134 male.

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