People Are Getting Married At The Same Pace Like They Did Before COVID-19 Was A Thing, Says CDC

In a recent revelation, the marriage rate in the United States has bounced back to the levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic. This comes after a year of delayed engagements due to the pandemic.

What Happened: The National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), disclosed that the number of marriages in 2022 stood at 2,065,905. This is the first time since 2019 that the total number of marriages has crossed the 2 million mark, with 2019 recording 2,015,603 marriages, reported The Hill.

The marriage rate also saw an uptick in 2022, reaching 6.2 per 1,000 population, the highest since 2018 when the rate was 6.5 per 1,000.

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The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to a decline in marriages, with the total number dropping to 1,676,911 in 2020, from a rate of 6.1 in 2019 to 5.1 in 2020. However, the number of marriages saw a slight increase in 2021, reaching 1,985,072, with the rate increasing from 5.1 in 2020 to 6.0 in 2021.

Despite the return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, the last two decades have seen a downward trend in marriage rates. On the other hand, the divorce and annulment rate has been slowly declining over the last two decades, with 2022 continuing this trend.

Why It Matters: The return to pre-pandemic marriage rates in 2022 comes amidst a series of changes in CDC guidelines due to the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CDC had announced that individuals infected with COVID-19 could return to work or school if they were without a fever for 24 hours and their symptoms were improving. This change in guidelines, along with the overall decline in COVID-19 cases, may have contributed to the increase in marriage rates as people returned to normalcy.

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