Summary 

There are three forms of marriages in Georgia: civil marriages, religious marriages and cohabitation. According to the figures of the 2014 census, the data with regard to the forms of marriages are as follows: civil marriages – 88,5%, religious marriages - 5,9% and cohabitation / unregistered marriages - 5,6%. Unregistered marriages are more widespread in young people of small age. An unregistered marriage rate is the highest among the young people aged 15-24 years. It’s make up 32,2% in men, and - 28,3% in women.

According to the figures of census from 2014, of the population 15 years old and the older, have never been married 24,7 % of men and 16,5 % of women. At the same time have never been married 74,7% of men and 48,5% of women between the ages of 20 and 24 years. With the increase in age, the number of young people who have never been married, as well as for the 25 - 29 year age group this index makes up 44,4% for men, and 22,5% for women. Whereas of the men of aged 40-44 years has never been in marriage 9,0% and of the women – 13,8%. The percentage of women who have never been married is less in the rural areas in comparison with urban settlement, and women living in rural settlement are married 3-4 years earlier than living in urban settlements.

The average age of men marriages exceeds by 4,6 years to the same index for women (men – 27,5 years, women – 22,9 years). The difference was marked in general between the age of marriages and the age of registered marriages. In the case of registered marriages, the average age of marriage for women is 25,9 years, and for men - 29,5 years. This can be explained by the fact that the conventional average age of marriage envisages only the first marriage, and in the case of registered marriages, re-marriages are taken into consideration as well. The average age of women marriage in rural communities is two years lower than the same index of women in urban settlements. In the case of men, it exceeds the average age of men marriages in urban settlements by 0,3 years.

Child marriage has not common character in Georgia. It takes place mainly among the religious and ethnic minorities. The early age marriages index is especially high among the Muslim population (19,6%). This figure exceeds by 3,6% the same figure of Orthodox Christians; by 3,8% - the followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church and by 5,4% the Catholics. The highest rate of married women between ages of 15-17 years is observed among the Azerbaijan population (27,4%), followed by Russians (12,3%) and Yezides (9,9%).

The number of re-marriages is especially high in the 16-44 year age groups. It makes up of 61,4% of men's re-marriages, whereas – 71,8% of women’s. If the marital coefficient per 1000 population per 2014 year made up 8,5, in the following years the decline of this figure occured (in 2015 - 7,8; whereas in 2016 - 6,7). Just the contrary is marked in the case of re-marriages - there is an increase here. In 16-44 year age group, 63,5% of men and 72,5% of women have re-married in 2015.

The increase in the number of new marriages is directly linked to the increase in the number of divorces. The number of divorces has increased especially recently in Georgia, this tendency is significantly observed among the young people.