When do most people get married? Wedding statistics in the United States

When do most people get married? Wedding statistics in the United States

Wedding statistics in the United States

When do most people get married? Statistics regarding weddings in the United Satates collected from various by Sound Vision.

 

  • 2.3 million couples wed every year in the US. That breaks down to nearly 6,200 weddings a day
  • the average age of a bride in the US is 25.3
  • average age of a groom is 26.9
  • average number of guests invited to a wedding is 178
  • one-third of those getting married each year have been married before

The money behind the marriage

  • $72 billion per year is spent on weddings
  • the average wedding budget is $20,000
  • $1,016 is the average cost of wedding rings for the bride and groom
  • traditionally, the father of the bride would pay for everything. Today, however, the bride and groom themselves pay for the wedding about 30 percent of the time; the bride's parents pay about 17 percent of the time. As for the rest of the time, costs are covered by different sources -- the bride and groom and one or both sets of parents, according to surveys by Bride's magazine.
  • $19 billion per year is spent on wedding gift registries
  • $8 billion per year is spent on honeymoons
  • the average honeymoon budget is $3,657
  • over  91 percent of all to-be-weds register for gifts. The couple receives gifts from an average of 200 guests
  • most wedding guests spend between $70 and $100 on a gift

Timing of weddings

June is the most popular month for weddings, then August, followed by September and October

here's a monthly breakdown:
January 4.7%
February 7.0%
March 6.1%
April 7.4%
May 9.8%
June 10.8%
July 9.7%
August 10.2%
September 9.6%
October 9.4%
November 7.4%
December 7.8%

Where do weddings take place?

80 percent of weddings are performed in churches or synagogues

Honeymoons

  • 99 percent of newlyweds take a honeymoon
  • the average couple will spend three times more on their honeymoon than a regular vacation
  • 40 percent of honeymooners will travel within the United States, about 60 percent will travel to a foreign country
  • honeymoons usually last 7 to 9 days
  • the most popular destinations are Las Vegas, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Jamaica
  • 35 percent of brides and grooms have a valid passport

Other Interesting Info

  • the top wedding city in the world is Istanbul, Turkey with 166,000 for the year
  • Las Vegas, Nevada is in second place with 114,000 weddings.

Sources for our statistics

US Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2003/cb03ff02.html
The Knot (http://www.theknot.com/au_industrystats.shtml),
The Association for Wedding Professionals International (http://www.afwpi.com/wedstats)
Sellmoreweddings.com
Sellthebride.com (http://www.sellthebride.com/tipsstats.htm)
American Demographics
Bride's Millennium Report: Wedding Love & Money
Bride's magazine

Comments

Great info - almost mind boggling. I am new to the industry with my product www.bib4brides.com and find this very helpful. Thank you

Location

Sonora, CA

Excellent data - I don't suppose you have any info for the UK as well? - we're looking to sell custom USB flash drives for the bride and groom to store the photos from their day on and elecronic versions of the invitations, the ceremony, the speeches and so on - you can get an idea at http://www.usb2u.co.uk

Location

Northampton - UK

Thanks for posting these statistics! Very helpful! If you're looking for low cost wedding flowers go to www.bunchesdirect.com, easy to use and great prices!

Location

Miami

This is very informative...more power to the writer!

Location

bacolod

If there are 2.3 million weddings in the United States per year and the aggregate spent is $72 billion, then the average budget must be about $31,000, not $20,000 as listed above. One of those three numbers - number of weddings, annual spent or average budget - must be wrong.

Location

NYC

Hello I am Wedding Planner in the Baltimore, Washington DC area. I am Instructor for one of the Community Colleges here in Baltimore. I teach a course on Wedding Planning as a Business Part 1 & Part II. This type of information is very good for my students. Please keep me informed.

Location

Baltimore

'These stats have to be from some wedding 'zine or other nuptual trade source. There aren't numbers about those not choosing to be documented or get a license. Nor for civil or common-l@w, so bottom-line on this,. . must be the hype. Thanks anyway.'

Location

bloomington, indiana

this is th best job on statics ever

Location

suffolk

How many people were married on July 4, 1976? I was married on that day and know of no other couple being married on that day, at least in the NYC area. I know the Fourth is more popular these days for weddings.

Location

NYC

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