MANILA, Philippines – Are you a millennial and have been frequently getting invites from friends or colleagues for wedding ceremonies? Well, you are not alone. Data show Filipino millennials prefer to get married before hitting the big 30.

In the latest release of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the median age of brides and grooms in the Philippines were at 27 and 29, respectively.

“About one-third of the brides and the grooms married between ages 25-29 years old, where grooms with 157,407 or 36.2% of the total marriages and brides with 148,618 or 34.2%,” the PSA said. (READ: Marriage is literally good for the heart – study)

While the age range remained traditional, the PSA reported that there were more marriages contracted through civil ceremonies (40.1%) than those officiated in the Roman Catholic Church (38.2%).

Other marriages were performed in the Muslim tradition (1.5%) or tribal ceremonies (0.6%) and other religious rites (19.6%). 

Filipinos no longer prefer June as the best month to get married. PSA data showed one-third of the total number of marriages were recorded in May (11.6%), December (11.5%), and February (10.4%). The month of November was the least liked month for marriage, recording the lowest at 5.0%.

While most Filipinos still married within the traditional age range, the PSA noted that there has been a slowdown of marriages from 2008 to 2017.

There were 486,514 marriages in 2008, but gradually slowed down and experienced a drastic dip in 2013. 

There were a total of 434,932 marriages in 2017, 10.6% lower than 2008, but still higher by 3.6% from 419,628 marriages in 2016. 

Calabarzon recorded the highest number of registered marriages, which accounted for 13.4% of the total marriages. It was followed by the National Capital Region (12.8%) and Central Luzon (11.7%). 

“These regions were consistently in the top 3 for the past 7 years,” the PSA said.

While most regions got a positive percent change in the number of marriages, 3 regions had less marriages compared to 2016.

The Zamboanga Peninsula had the highest decrease of 12.1%.  Cagayan Valley and Caraga had 5.9% and 4.9%  decrease, respectively, from 2016 to 2017.

There were a total of 15,257 (3.5%) of intermarriages in 2017.

Filipinas still preferred grooms from the United States (3,168) and Japan (1,490).

On the other hand, Filipino grooms tend to marry Australians (298), Chinese (273), Americans (162), Canadians (135), and Japanese (123). – Rappler.com