Number of same-sex marriage slides by 34%

The number of same-sex marriages decreased by nearly two hundred in 2018 from the year before to 387. This is close the level of 373 registered partnerships entered into in 2013, according to Statistics Finland.

As a result of the amendment to the Marriage Act, starting from 1 March 2017, same-sex partners enter into marriage and partnerships are no longer registered. From 1 March 2017 until the end of the year 554 same-sex couples entered into marriage.

When the 36 couples who, before the legislation amendment had registered their partnership, are added, a total of 590 same-sex marriages and partnerships started in 2017.

Since 2006, women have registered more partnerships than men per year. This has not changed when same-sex couples started entering into marriages instead of registered partnerships in 2017. In several years, the number of new official female couples has been double compared to male couples.

When examining same-sex couples entering into their first registered partnership or marriage, the average age of male couples has always been clearly higher than that of female couples, except in 2006 when they were almost equal.

In 2018, the average age of male couples who entered into their first marriage was 41 years and that of female couples 34 years.