Marriages and divorces in Russia by year: statistics and charts

2026-08-26 · Demographic Yearbook of Russia

In 2023, 946.0 thousand marriages and 683.8 thousand divorces were registered in Russia. For every thousand marriages contracted, there were 723 dissolved. In 1960, this ratio was 123 per thousand, meaning that over sixty-plus years, divorces have become six times more frequent relative to marriages. Rosstat data.

Below are the full series since 1960, rates per 1,000 population, breakdown by age of groom and bride, the peak wedding months, and differences between federal districts.

Marriages and divorces: table by year

Absolute numbers per year.

The number of marriages fluctuates much more than the number of divorces. Over sixty years, marriages went from 1.5 million down to 0.77 million in the disastrous year of 2020, and back up to 1.05 million in 2022. Since the mid-seventies, divorces have remained within a narrow corridor of 560–700 thousand per year, showing almost no reaction to either crises or the pandemic.

This is precisely why the "divorces per 1,000 marriages" ratio jumps: the numerator stands still, while the denominator leaps. The figure for 2020 (733) is explained not by a spike in divorces, but by the fact that weddings were postponed to the following year. The series since 1960 is available in the dataset.

Rates per 1,000 population

The marriage rate in 2023 returned to the level of 2000, while the divorce rate since then has grown from 4.3 to 4.7 per thousand.

When people get married: months of registration

Number of marriages by month, 2022:

• January: 41,675
• February: 61,158
• March: 56,438
• April: 69,061
• May: 44,301
• June: 96,722
• July: 122,660
• August: 116,403
• September: 133,020
• October: 127,219
• November: 105,600
• December: 79,499

July, August, and September combined yielded 372 thousand marriages, 35.3% of the entire year. In almost all years of the series, May turns out to be the emptiest month: 35.4 thousand in 2000, 41.3 thousand in 2010, and 46.6 thousand in 2021. The folk superstition "marry in May and you will suffer all your life" holds up in Rosstat data better than many economic laws.

A shift within the warm season is also noticeable. In 2010, the peak fell in July (164.2 thousand), while in 2022, it was in September (133.0 thousand). Monthly series are available on the dataset page.

Age of Groom and Bride

Here is the strongest shift in the entire material.

Number of marriages by age of groom:

In 2000, almost half of the grooms (45.4%) were under 25 years old, while grooms over 35 accounted for 20.7%. In 2023, the shares swapped places: 19.2% under 25 and 39.2% over 35.

For brides, the shift is even more drastic:

There are 8.3 times fewer brides under 18: 29.9 thousand in 2000 against 3.6 thousand in 2023. The 18–24 group lost 44% and ceased to be the most numerous: currently, there are practically as many brides over 35 (327.6 thousand) as there are aged 25–34 (327.1 thousand). The breakdown by age is available in a separate dataset.

The average age at marriage has shifted by about five years over a generation. The same process is visible in birth statistics and in the age structure of the population, analyzed in the article "Age Composition of the Population of Russia".

Regions: Where People Marry More Often

Number of marriages per 1,000 population by federal district, 2023:

• Northwestern: 7.4
• Far Eastern: 7.4
• Ural: 7.0
• Southern: 6.9
• Siberian: 6.9
• Central: 6.5
• Volga: 6.1
• North Caucasian: 3.4

The variation between districts is small everywhere except for the North Caucasian. There, 3.4 marriages per thousand inhabitants are registered, twice as few as the national average, while there are 5.4 divorces per thousand. The ratio is 1,574 divorces per 1,000 marriages, and in Dagestan it is 2,828 and in Ingushetia 3,528.

Demographers usually have one explanation: religious marriage is common in these republics, which is not recorded by civil registry offices (ZAGS), while the dissolution of previously registered marriages is fully captured in the statistics. In this form, the indicator speaks more about registration practices than about the stability of families. The values for all regions are collected in the dataset.

For comparison, the picture is the opposite for major cities: Saint Petersburg has 9.2 marriages per thousand and 530 divorces per 1,000 marriages, Moscow has 6.9 and 541.

Questions and Answers

How many marriages are registered in Russia per year?

In 2023, there were 945,995. In 2022, there were 1,053,756, and in the disastrous year of 2020, there were 770,857.

What percentage of marriages in Russia end in divorce?

Official statistics do not provide a direct answer: they count marriages and divorces within a single year, rather than tracking the fate of specific couples. The ratio of 723 divorces per 1,000 marriages in 2023 only means that during the year, the number of dissolved marriages was equivalent to 72% of the number of registered ones, with the dissolved unions having been formed in various different years.

In which month do people in Russia marry most often?

In recent years, these are September and July. In 2022, September yielded 133.0 thousand marriages, and July yielded 122.7 thousand. The most unpopular month in almost all years of the time series is May.

At what age do people in Russia marry?

In 2023, 41.6% of grooms were aged 25–34, 39.2% were older than 35, and 19.2% were younger than 25. Twenty years ago, almost every second groom was younger than 25.

Is the number of divorces in Russia growing?

The absolute number of divorces has been stable since the mid-seventies: 560–700 thousand per year. In 2023, there were 683.8 thousand, which is close to the level of 1980 (580.7 thousand) and below the peak of 2002 (853.6 thousand).

In brief

There are approximately 680 thousand divorces in Russia per year, and this figure has barely changed for half a century. What changes is the number of marriages, and along with it, all derived indicators.

The main shift has occurred not in divorces, but in age. Men and women marry noticeably later: the share of grooms older than 35 has doubled since 2000, while the number of brides younger than 18 has decreased eightfold. May remains the most unpopular month for a wedding sixty years in a row.

See also

• Age structure of the population of Russia
• Men and women in Russia