The number of weddings grew 35% in the last decade, even if Brazilians are choosing to get married later in life. A study released this Wednesday, November 25, by IBGE, Brazil’s official statistics bureau, shows that a growing number of women is getting married between 25 and 29.

In 1998, only 19.4% of all the brides where in that range of age. In 2008, they were 28.4 of the total. On the other hand, the percentage of brides between 15 and 24 is falling. Still, 16.3% of the girls getting married are 15 to 19 and 29.7% are 20 to 24.

Men are also getting married at older ages. Most of them (32% are between 25 and 29).

It is very easy to understand this tendency and its consequences when you review how two other indicators evolved:

• Education: Brazilian kids are studying more. In 2007, only 17.7% of the teenagers between 15 and 17 were not studying. Compare this to the 40.3% dropout index registered in 1992. Illiteracy is still there (10% of women, 10.2% of men) but it is shrinking.
• Birth rate: Brazilians have less babies. In 1940, women would have 6.16 babies in average. In 2000, only 2.38. It’s barely enough to maintain our population of 192 million souls. And the birth rate continues to fall. In the countryside the fertility rate is pretty low – 3.5%.

The equation is very easy to guess: + education = later marriages = less kids.

I wonder what other consequences this could have. More weddings probably mean less informal unions and a fairer division of assets after a separation. Also, when people get married later and postpone procreation, they can accumulate more and this might lead to wealthier families .

No matter what, these are great news that I will celebrate kissing my husband – whom I married very, very late in life.

Written by Regina Scharf

http://www.brazzilmag.com