THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has reported on Tuesday that the number of marriages involving young Filipino women barely out their teens slightly rose in 2019.
Based on the marriage statistics released by the PSA, a total of 45 girls aged below 15 years old got married in 2019. This was higher than the 43 recorded in 2018.
Most of the young women’s marriages were solemnized in Muslim tradition and tribal ceremonies. But at least one was in the Roman Catholic Church, the first time this happened between 2015 and 2019.
“In 2019, the median age of marriage, or the age at which half of the population were younger/older upon marriage, was 27 years old for women and 29 years old for men. Moreover, the median age of marriage for both sexes were the same since 2017,” PSA said.
Based on the data, 23 marriages of women aged below 15 years old were done according to Muslim tradition and 19 were done through tribal ceremonies.
Marriages done according to the Muslim tradition in 2019 was more than the 21 recorded in 2018 while marriages through tribal rites remained the same compared to 2018.
The 2019 data which showed 45 young women getting married before their 15th birthday was the highest since 2017 when there were a total of 51 of them who got married in the same age group.
Among young men, PSA data showed two aged below 15 years old got married in 2019. One got married according to Muslim tradition and the other one through tribal rites.
This was lower than the four recorded in 2018. The data showed, however, that they were also married according to Muslim and tribal rites, the same as 2019.
Meanwhile, the number of registered marriages in 2019 reached 431,972, lower than the total registered marriages of 449,169 in 2018.
In 2019, the Calabarzon region recorded the highest number of registered marriages, which accounted for 13.9 percent of the total.
It was followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) at 12.4 percent and Central Luzon at 11.8 percent. These regions were consistently held the same positions since 2016.
Among all regions, the two which recorded an increase in registered marriages were Cagayan Valley at 1.3 percent and Ilocos Region at 1 percent.
Meanwhile, declines in the registered marriages during the period were noted in 15 regions, where there was a contraction of 17 percent was observed in ARMM, followed by Soccsksargen at 13.7 percent and NCR at 7.6 percent.
Almost half or 44.9 percent of the total number of marriages in 2019 occurred in December at 12 percent; February, 11.5 percent; May, 11.1 percent; and April, 10.3 percent.
Other months contributed less than 10 percent each to the total registered marriages, with November having the least contribution of only 5 percent of the total.