Same-sex, humanist weddings exceed Catholic weddings in Scotland

August 17, 2016

The number of same-sex wedding ceremonies exceeded the number of Catholic weddings in Scotland in 2015, according to an annual demographic report released by Scotland’s government.

Over 5% of weddings that took place in Scotland last year were same-sex ceremonies. 1,671 same-sex weddings took place—975 of women, and 696 of men—while 1,438 Catholic weddings were celebrated, down from 2,004 a decade earlier. The year 2015 was the first full year in which homosexual civil marriages were legal.

For the sixth consecutive year, weddings conducted by Humanist Society Scotland exceeded the number of Catholic weddings. The number of weddings conducted by various humanist groups now exceeds the number of weddings conducted by the Church of Scotland, the nation’s main Protestant body.

In 2015, there were more deaths (57,579) in Scotland than births (55,098), but because of migration from the rest of the United Kingdom and overseas, the population increased to a record 5,373,000.

 

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Further information:

• Scotland’s Changing Population (National Records of Scotland)
• Table 7.5: Marriages, religious forms and other beliefs, by selected denomination 1 , Scotland, 2005 to 2015