On the 22nd of May 2015, people all over Ireland travelled to their polling stations to vote on the same-sex marriage referendum. The following day it was revealed that Ireland had become the first country to legalise marriage equality by popular vote.
Same-sex marriage became legal in Ireland on the 16th of November 2015 and the first same-sex marriage took place on the 17th of November.
People all around the country celebrated as Ireland gained worldwide attention for this accomplishment.
However data provided by the Central Statistics Office shows that the number of same-sex marriages has been decreasing since 2016. The below graph shows the total number of same-sex marriages from 2016-2018.
The next graph shows these statistics broken up into the number of female and male same-sex marriages. As you can see there is a steady decrease in same-sex marriages here from 2016-2018.
Female same-sex marriages decreased by 35% from 2016 to 2018 and male same-sex marriages decreased by 38% from 2016-2018.
Possible reasons for this decrease?
As same-sex marriage was only made legal in November 2015 it is possible that there was an initial surge in same-sex marriages as people had been waiting so long to be given their basic right to equality in marriage. It is possible that this average is now levelling out following an initial spike in numbers.
However, whatever the statistics may be, Ireland will always be remembered and be proud of becoming the first country to approve marriage equality by popular vote.
