A Crystal Jubilee: 15 Years Of Marriage Equality

[LeonMichaels]

As of April 1st it will have been 15 years since same-sex marriage became legal in the Netherlands   Yay 

 

In view of this anniversary the (Dutch) bureau for statistics made a nice summary of all the same-sex marriage of these past 15 years. See HERE for the full report (in English) with fancy graphs and everything.

 

One of the most striking finds, and one I found quite surprising, is that the 15-year divorce rate for lesbian-marriages is twice that of gay- and straight-marriages. Gay-marriage, in turn, has a lower divorce rate than straight-marriage (15% vs 18%).

 

There does not appear to be a clear reason why lesbians are more prone to divorce, so, does anyone care to speculate?

[AC Benus]

Thanks for posting this. It's all very interesting, but I don't think I saw a percentage of numbers on the stats page. One that says same-sex marriages are such-and-such percent of the total marriages in the Netherlands. Did I miss that one...?   

[LeonMichaels]

No, you're right, it's not there, but I agree it should have been.

 

I did a little digging though and found the numbers. Over the past ten years the total number of marriage fluctuated around 70.000 per year. This means the number of same-sex marriage is a steady 2% of the total.

 

( Source )

[AC Benus]

No, you're right, it's not there, but I agree it should have been.

 

I did a little digging though and found the numbers. Over the past ten years the total number of marriage fluctuated around 70.000 per year. This means the number of same-sex marriage is a steady 2% of the total.

 

( Source )

Awesome. Thanks for looking into it for me!

[TetRefine]

The most interesting thing I found browsing through the statistics was the average age of people when they got married in the Netherlands.

 

It didn't surprise me that gay men were almost 47 years old, on average, when they married. Most of those who did get married were probably together for a long time before legal marriage, and just got married when it became legal.

 

Though I was surprised that straight men who married women were almost 37 years old, on average, when they tied the knot. It seems most adults in America before my generation got married in their 20s, and if you weren't married by 30 there "must have been something wrong with you". That trend is definitely changing though with my generation, as people are waiting much longer (smartly) to make such a big commitment. 

 

Interesting!

[Carlos Hazday]

The most interesting thing I found browsing through the statistics was the average age of people when they got married in the Netherlands.

 

It didn't surprise me that gay men were almost 47 years old, on average, when they married. Most of those who did get married were probably together for a long time before legal marriage, and just got married when it became legal.

 

Though I was surprised that straight men who married women were almost 37 years old, on average, when they tied the knot. It seems most adults in America before my generation got married in their 20s, and if you weren't married by 30 there "must have been something wrong with you". That trend is definitely changing though with my generation, as people are waiting much longer (smartly) to make such a big commitment. 

 

Interesting!

I think it's been changing for a while, Matt. Both my brothers married after 30, whereas my parents tied the knot in their 20s.

[Bill W]

Tet, when I was a kid, those that weren't married by 30 were classified.  The men were referred to as "confirmed bachelors" and the women were called "old maids".  There was also the term "funny uncle" for some of the men, but it makes you wonder how many of them might have been gay or lesbian.  

[Atheugorei]

I found it interesting that in the last graph, where they show you the common ages of persons getting married, that it is nearly even across the board with male same-sex marriages. As in, the age brackets seem more consistent than their counterparts.