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This chart shows the monthly number of marriages in France between January 2019 and December 2023, according to the month of the year. Except for the year 2020, the year of the pandemic, it can be observed that, year after year, the number of marriages fluctuates greatly depending on the month. The vast majority of marriages are celebrated during the months of June and July, while very few people get married between November and March.

A traditional view increasingly abandoned

In twenty years, the number of marriages celebrated in France has decreased by almost 21 percent since 2000. Despite the legalization of same-sex marriage in May 2013, which has since allowed more than 77,500 same-sex couples to unite, there were an estimated 241,000 marriages in 2023 compared to more than 300,000 in 2000. The French increasingly prefer the Civil Solidarity Pact (PACS) established in 1999 over marriage, which allows couples to organize their life together by agreement without the burden of the legal union of marriage. Thus, nearly 210,000 PACS were concluded in France in 2022, while the proportion of births outside marriage has increased by almost 30 percent in the country over the past thirty years. However, France, after some European countries such as Germany, is seeing its birth rate decline. The decline in marriage and births share some common reasons, such as the desire of the French to remain free, the pursuit of personal fulfillment, and financial difficulties. However, unlike France, which guarantees its citizens the freedom to choose to marry, there are still parts of the world where marriage is often forced.

Forced marriage worldwide

In 2022, 22 million forced marriages worldwide had been concluded. Considered modern slavery by the International Labour Organization, forced marriage is especially prevalent in lower-middle-income countries, notably in Asia and the Pacific (65 percent of forced marriages) and Africa (13 percent of forced marriages). Populations in countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Nigeria are mainly subject to forced marriages. However, this practice does not completely spare the most developed countries where it is punishable: in 2018, 30 forced marriages were recorded in Belgium. Worldwide, forced marriages mainly affect women, especially the youngest, since in 2021 more than 50 percent of women forced to marry were 17 years old or younger compared to 17 percent of men in the same situation.