07 March 2018
Seventy percent of all marriages in Jersey last year were civil ceremonies with the remaining 30 percent taking place in island churches, according to new figures.
Jersey’s Superintendent Registrar has released the Annual Life Event statement for 2017, which also shows that the number of births were at their lowest since 2002 and deaths at the highest since 2002.
In 2017, there were 15 civil partnership ceremonies in Jersey, one more than in the previous year. The most popular venue for civil partnership ceremonies was the Register Office.
In the annual statement, prepared by Superintendent Registrar Claire Follain, the figures show that:
The number of actual births in Jersey in 2017 was 949, which was 59 less than the previous year.
There were 816 deaths registered in Jersey in 2017, which is an increase of 51 from 2016.
There were 447 marriages in Jersey in 2017 – 27 less than 2016.
The most popular venue for marriage ceremonies in Jersey in 2017 was the Register Office – where 157 ceremonies took place.
There were 275 civil marriage ceremonies in Jersey in 2017, equating to 70 percent of all marriages in Jersey.
There were 134 church marriage ceremonies, equating to 30 percent of all marriages in Jersey.
Ms Follain said: “Of the 447 marriages that took place in Jersey last year, the greater majority (70%) were civil ceremonies. And 96 were Church of England ceremonies (21.5% of the total Island marriages), 31 Catholic Church ceremonies (6.9% of the total marriages) and the remaining seven marriages occurred in other denomination churches such as Methodist, Freedom and Kingdom Hall churches.
“Unlike in previous years, I am now able to give a lot more detail to the statistics, such as breakdowns as to the number of Anglican marriages and the number of each denominational and civil marriage. Due to the introduction of digital registration I am also able to accurately report on the number of actual births in Jersey as well as the number of registered births. The other interesting figures from last year shows that the Office of the Superintendent Registrar is by far the most popular venue for marriage in the Island.
gov.je