The Aftermath of War: A Jump in Weddings in Israel and the Cities Breaking Singlehood Records
The number of couples marrying in 2024 increased by about 10% compared to the previous year. Simultaneously, there has been a rise in the number of singles, the average age of marriage, and the popularity of cohabitation without marriage. The CBS clarifies that marriage rates in Israel show a long-term decline.
Following the sharp decline in the number of weddings in 2023 due to the 'Iron Swords' war, the number of couples marrying in Israel returned to growth in 2024. This is according to new data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on the occasion of Tu B'Av.
The data shows a sharp jump in the volume of marriages, alongside long-term trends of delaying the age of marriage, an increase in the number of singles, and the expansion of the phenomenon of cohabitation without marriage.
In 2024, about 53,000 couples married in authorized religious institutions in Israel — an increase of about 10% compared to the previous year, which was deeply affected by the outbreak of the war on October 7. About 71% of those marrying were Jewish, about 26% Muslim, about 2% Druze, and about 1% Christian. The most prominent increase was recorded in the Jewish sector, where the number of those marrying increased by more than 13% within a year.
However, looking broadly, the CBS clarifies that this is mainly a return to routine and not a change in trend: marriage rates in Israel show a long-term decline that has been continuing for almost three decades. One of the central trends is the continuous rise in the age of marriage.
In 2024, the average age of Jewish grooms marrying for the first time was 27.3 (compared to 27.0 in 2023), and for Jewish brides, the average rose to 25.6 years (compared to 25.4 in the previous year). For comparison, since 1970, the average age of marriage for Jewish grooms has risen by about three years, and for brides by about four and a half years.
Parallel to the delay of marriage, the phenomenon of cohabitation without marriage continues to skyrocket, and the rate of Jewish couples living together without an official marriage jumped from only 2.5% in 2000 to 7.1% in 2024.
These changes are well reflected in the rates of singlehood. Today, about 65% of Jewish men and about 53% of women aged 25-29 are still not married. The increase in the rate of the unmarried is also evident in the 45-49 age group, a figure indicating that for many Israelis, delaying marriage is not just a temporary stage.
The gaps between the big cities are particularly prominent: Tel Aviv leads by a significant margin, as young people aged 25-29 show particularly high rates of singlehood — over 90% of men and about 83% of women in the city are not married. High rates were also recorded in Herzliya and Ramat Gan, while Bnei Brak and Beit Shemesh show the lowest rates of singles, a figure reflecting their religious and family character.
Alongside marriages in Israel, the CBS reports over 8,000 cases of marriages conducted abroad in 2024 (in which at least one of the spouses is registered in the population registry). This figure includes civil marriages, as well as online marriages through the state of Utah in the United States — an option that allows one to marry legally without leaving the country's borders.
Among the Jewish couples who chose to marry outside of Israel, over half did so in the USA, about a quarter married in Cyprus, and about 5% married in former Soviet Union countries (mainly in Georgia).
