{"id":23241,"date":"2026-08-20T10:58:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/?p=23241"},"modified":"2026-08-20T10:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:58:23","slug":"il-tramonto-del-matrimonio-in-chiesa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/il-tramonto-del-matrimonio-in-chiesa\/","title":{"rendered":"The decline of church weddings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nIstat data outline a structural change in Italian society: church weddings no longer represent the automatic choice of the majority of couples, marking a definitive overtaking of civil marriages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
The Whistleblower<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The overtaking numbers<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  • \n

    Prevalence of the civil rite:<\/span><\/b> Beyond <\/span>61%<\/span><\/b> of the total marriages are celebrated in the town hall or through civil ceremonies, confirming a steadily growing trend in recent decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
    The Whistleblower<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  • \n

    Decline of the religious rite:<\/span><\/b> Church weddings continue to record double-digit contractions (with annual drops of around -11%<\/b>), losing ground even in the realm of first marriages.<\/p>\n

    \n
    The Whistleblower<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  • \n

    Geographical divide:<\/b> The North and the Center are leading the shift toward civil ceremonies (with the percentage exceeding 58% even for first marriages in the North), while the South remains the region where the Church-sanctioned marriage retains the strongest share, albeit one that is gradually declining.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    Pronounced seasonality:<\/b> Religious observances occur almost entirely (more than 90%) between spring and early fall, with peaks in June and September.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
    The Whistleblower<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The main reasons<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
    The Whistleblower<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
      \n
    • \n

      Cultural secularization:<\/span><\/b> The Catholic rite has lost its value as an \u201cobligatory passage\u201d or pure social convention; the choice to get married in church today mostly responds to a genuine conviction of faith, reducing ceremonies celebrated solely for family tradition.<\/p>\n

      \n
      Sky TG24<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
    • \n

      Boom in cohabitations (more uxorio):<\/span><\/b> Cohabitations have almost quadrupled over the last twenty years.<\/span> Cohabitation is now experienced as an autonomous and lasting alternative or as a very long preliminary phase, reducing the symbolic need for the sacrament.<\/p>\n

      \n
      Istat<\/span>+ 1<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
    • \n

      Aging of the couple and job insecurity:<\/span><\/b> The average age at first marriage has exceeded <\/span>34 years for men and 32 for women<\/span><\/b>.<\/span> Late entry into the job market and delayed housing independence are driving more pragmatic and less formal choices.<\/p>\n

      \n
      The Whistleblower<\/span>+ 1<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
    • \n

      Pair composition:<\/span><\/b> The rise in marriages involving at least one foreign national (where civil ceremonies account for more than 90%) and the increase in second marriages are statistically steering wedding ceremonies away from the altar.<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
      The Whistleblower<\/span>+ 1<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Observations and scenarios<\/b><\/p>\n

      The decline of church attendance is just the tip of the iceberg of a broader demographic transformation linked to declining birth rates and the numerical contraction of younger generations.<\/p>\n

      The religious ceremony has transformed from a collective rite into a minority and conscious choice, while the institution of marriage is redefining itself around more flexible civil and privatized models.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I dati Istat delineano un cambiamento strutturale nella societ\u00e0 italiana: il matrimonio in chiesa non rappresenta pi\u00f9 la scelta automatica […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[764],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mondoarteefotografia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23243,"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23241\/revisions\/23243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/photoworld.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}