More people getting married

MORE people are getting married in Ireland and there is an almost three-fold rise in second marriages, new statistics show.

Latest Central Statistics Office census figures show that in April 2002 there were 1,454,413 married people in the State an increase of just over 7% on the same month in 1996.

The figures also confirm that increase in marriage rates since the mid-1990s has been boosted by the advent of divorce, followed on by second marriages.