In 2023, 46,564 marriages were registered in Belgium, i.e. a decrease of 4% compared to the previous year. While the northern and southern regions followed the national trend (-4.3% in Flanders and -4.4% in Wallonia), the Brussels-Capital Region was fairly stable (+0.4%). This brings us closer to the values observed before the pandemic, when we were fluctuating between 44,000 and 45,000 marriages a year in Belgium.
The same trend can be seen in the number of declarations of legal cohabitation, down by 3.6% compared to 2022, with 36,990 new declarations. There is a certain regional homogeneity here: -3.1% in the Walloon Region, -3.2% in the Brussels-Capital Region and -3.9% in the Flemish Region.
There were 20,034 divorces in 2023. This is a 3.6% increase compared to 2022. While this number is almost constant in Wallonia (+0.2%), it is rising in the other two regions (+10.3% in Brussels-Capital and +4.5% in Flanders).
As for terminations of legal cohabitation, they remain relatively stable: -0.4% at national level, +2% in the Brussels-Capital Region, -0.2% in Flanders and -0.9% in Wallonia. The average duration of legal cohabitations that have been terminated continues to increase: it amounts to 5.9 years.
The number of widowhoods has decreased by 5% in 2023. This decrease is more significant in Brussels-Capital (-8.3%) than in Flanders (-4.4%) and in Wallonia (-5.4%).
Partnerships that come later and later
The age at first partnership is increasingly high. Legal cohabitants who have never been married have an average age of 31.9 for the first partner[1] and 30.1 for the second. At the time of their first marriage, partners are now 35.4 years old (1st spouse[2]) and 33.2 years old (2nd spouse). This progression can be linked to the previous one, since legal cohabitation is regularly the antechamber to marriage. Indeed, in 2023, legal cohabitation giving way to marriage still accounted for more than half of all terminations (56.5%). This phenomenon is more marked in Flanders (61.1%) than in Wallonia (49%) or Brussels (44.2%).
Almost 4 marriages out of 10 end in divorce, 6 out of 10 in widowhood
The length of marriage before divorce remains stable: 14.7 years on average. It is slightly longer in the Walloon Region (15.7 years) than in Flanders (14.4 years) and Brussels (14.2 years). This difference in average length is even more marked for first marriages. On average, people get divorced after 17.3 years of marriage in Wallonia, compared to 15.6 years in Flanders and 15 years in the Brussels-Capital Region. The average length of marriage before widowhood is considerably longer (49.1 years). People become widows or widowers after 52.2 years in the case of first marriages.
In relation to the marriages they extinguish (the “stock of marriages”), divorces once again account for more than a third of marriage terminations this year. This figure exceeds 40% in the Walloon Region (420 divorces per 1,000 marriages). Brussels follows suit (390 divorces per 1,000 marriages), while Flanders has a slightly lower figure (355 divorces per 1,000 marriages). It should also be noted that the number of marriages likely to end is decreasing: the stock of marriages considered has fallen by 11% in 10 years and 19.7% in 20 years.
As for widowhood, a phenomenon linked to mortality, there has been a slight fall, returning to a value close to that recorded in 2019. In 2023, the total widowhood rate amounts to 576 per 1,000 marriages, i.e. just under 60% of marriages.
Diversity of marriages
While common residence is a sine qua non for entering legal cohabitation, this is not the case for marriage. In fact, 12.3% of spouses do not live in the same region at the time of their union.
Logically, it is in Belgium that marriages take place most often (90.2% of unions). This means that in 9.8% of cases, the bride and groom - at least one of whom lives in Belgium - marry abroad. The countries where most marriages take place are, in order: Morocco, Romania, Turkey, France and Poland.
An anniversary year for same-sex marriage in Belgium
2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Belgium. Belgium was the second country, after the Netherlands in 2001, to allow same-sex marriages throughout its territory. Since 2003, the number of such marriages has been rising slowly and accounted in 2023 for 3% of all marital unions.
Legal cohabitation has been open to same-sex couples since it was introduced in 2000. These couples accounted for 14.7% of declarations of unrelated partnerships in 2000 and 6.4% in 2003. This proportion has now stabilised at around 4% for the past 4 years.
[1] For cohabitations involving persons of different sexes, the first partner is the man and the second the woman. For cohabitations involving same-sex persons, the first parter is the older one.
[2] For marriages between persons of different sexes, the first spouse is the man and the second the woman. For marriages between same-sex persons, the first spouse is the older one.