Notes on the population - the fall in the number of weddings

Abstract

Most Portuguese couples are married. However, the way in which they live together has changed with the times, and the shape of marriage has changed. This is reflected in, for example, the decrease in the number of weddings taking place, the increase in the number of divorces, the growing number of births taking place outside marriage, the growing occurrence, among the very young, of living together. Statistical data, at the moment centred on weddings (and respective divorces) does not, therefore, take account of a field of observation that is more and more relevant to contemporary Portuguese society.