Just 22% of marriages in Louth last year were Catholic

Just 22% of the 830 marriages in Louth last year were Catholic figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

Marginally more people got married in Louth last year compared with the year before, with 830 marriages in 2024 compared with 811 in 2023, 801 were opposite sex marriages while 29 were same-sex marriages. When it comes to same sex marriages marginally more women than men got married with 15 female marriages and 14 male marriages in Louth.

Civil marriage ceremonies proved the most popular among heterosexual couples with 308 civil ceremonies taking place in Louth last year. Ceremonies for other denominations were the second most popular with 208 ceremonies taking place along with 179 Catholic weddings.

Other marriages in 2024 included 40 Humanist weddings, 55 Spiritualist weddings, seven Church of Ireland, four Presbyterian.

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Commenting on the national statistics, Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division at the CSO, said: “There were 20,348 marriages in Ireland in 2024 including 668 same-sex marriages. This equates to a crude (unadjusted) marriage rate of 3.8 per 1,000 population.

“The equivalent rate in 2023 was 4.0 while the rate for 2014 was 4.8 per 1,000 population. Overall, the total number of marriages celebrated in 2024 decreased by 3.8% from 2023 and has reduced by 7.7% from 2014. Opposite-sex marriages fell by 4.2% from 20,513 marriages to 19,680, while same-sex marriages rose by 3.4%, up 22 additional marriages from 646 in 2023.”