The number of Catholic Church weddings in Poland declined from 230,000 in 1990 to 136,000 in 2016, a new report has found.

Demographers have for years seen Polish couples put off their decision to marry, said Wojciech Sadłoń, a priest from the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics (ISKK), which carried out the study.

“Young people first want to gain an education and pursue a career and only later do they choose to start a family,” Sadłoń told the PAP news agency.

There is a growing number of couples who choose to remain live-in partners for years, which “is the reason why the average age at marriage is growing,” Sadłoń said, adding that it was “inching towards 30”.

The number of Poles choosing never to marry is growing, but the number remains very small, Sadłoń added.

Catholic wedding ceremonies comprised 63 percent of all nuptials in Poland in 2016, according to the study.

“We need to keep in mind that couples may enter into a sacramental marriage only once and a civil marriage several times,” Sadłoń told PAP.

Some 1,250 marriage annulment applications were submitted in Poland in 1989, the number tripled by 2016 to about 3,700, the report said.

(aba)

Source: PAP