The number of religious marriages collapses. This is what emerges from the latest Istat data which reveal how the measures to contain the health emergency have led to a vertical decline, especially in marriages, celebrated with a religious rite, which is more than double that of civil marriages (-67.9% against -28.9%). For the latter this is the first exceptional setback after a phase of continuous growth. This imbalance has changed the incidence of marriages celebrated with a civil ceremony, from 52.6% in 2019 to 71.1% in 2020 (it was 2.3% of total marriages in 1970, 36.7% in 2008) . The civil ceremony is decidedly more common in second marriages (96.7%), being in many cases an obligatory choice, and in marriages with at least one foreign spouse (95.4% compared to 65.2% of marriages of both Italians) . The choice of civil ceremony has also become increasingly widespread in the case of first marriages (61.1% in 2020). In fact, considering the first marriages of both Italian spouses (83.3% of the total of the first marriages), the average incidence of those celebrated with the civil ceremony is 54.6% in 2020 (33.4% in 2019 and 20 , 0% in 2008). This share shows a marked territorial variability: it goes from the minimum in the South (46.8%) to the maximum in the Center (60.9%), closer distances than in the past in the presence of a geography that remains substantially unchanged. The choice of the property separation regime, which tends to increase compared to the past (62.7% in 2008, 40.9% in 1995), shows a more evident increase in 2020: it concerns 74.7% of marriages (72 , 8% the previous year). WEDDING AND PANDEMIC – In 2020, the pandemic has caused many people to postpone or give up their wedding. There were 96,841 weddings celebrated in Italy, 47.4% less than in 2019. Above all, weddings with a religious rite (-67.9%) and first marriages (-52.3%) were down. Istat notes it. For the first nine months of 2021, provisional data indicate a doubling of marriages compared to the same period of 2020, but the recovery is not enough to recover what was lost in the previous year. Civil unions between same-sex partners also decreased (-33.0%), separations (-18.0%) and divorces (-21.9%). The long-term trend decrease has had some economic fluctuations. For example, an increase in marriages was observed in 2000, due to the attractiveness that this year had for those who wanted to celebrate their wedding at the beginning of the new millennium. On the contrary, in the three-year period 2009-2011 the decrease was particularly accentuated and due to the collapse of the marriage of foreign citizens, discouraged by the legislative changes aimed at limiting marriages of convenience and by the effects of the 2008 crisis which particularly affected them. The fall in marriages is mainly attributable to the decline in first marriages which, in 2020, recorded a new low, only 69,743 (-52.3% compared to 2019). The first marriages with the groom between the ages of 30 and 39 (-55.8%) and those with the bride up to 39 years (-54.4%) decreased the most. A more limited decline concerns the first marriages in which both spouses are at least 50 years old (-26.9%). DIVORCE – The analysis of the first nine months of 2021, albeit based on still provisional data, allows us to advance some considerations on the most recent trend in separations and divorces that were less affected by the effects of the pandemic. In the first nine months of 2021, Istat notes, the increase compared to the same period of 2020 (+ 36.4% for separations and + 32.8% for divorces) brings back to levels similar to those of 2019. in separations, the growth is more consistent in the case of measures before the Courts, in particular for consensuals (+ 49.3%). The latter type, which had recorded the most significant decline in 2020, shows an increase of 6.0% also between 2021 and 2019. The same trend can be seen in the case of divorces by mutual consent. both for divorces, especially for separations, showed a contained decrease in the first nine months of 2020 (-2.1%), followed by an increase in the same months of 2021 (+ 11.1%). In the comparison between 2021 and 2019, therefore, there is an increase of 8.8%, in line with what was observed between 2018 and 2019. Presumably the choice of this procedure was also benefited by the electronic filing of documents that already characterized this type of agreement. Lastly, separations and divorces by mutual consent directly in the Municipalities saw a recovery in the first nine months of 2021 compared to the same period of 2020 (respectively + 14.8% and + 9.9%). However, given the health emergency management problems linked to the carrying out of administrative procedures, the comparison between the first nine months of 2021 and the pre-pandemic period itself highlights a significant decrease (-16.7%). MIXED WEDDINGS – In 2020, 18,832 weddings were celebrated with at least one foreign bridegroom, a decrease of 44.9% compared to the previous year. However, the share of the total celebrations remained practically unchanged, almost one in five marriages: 19.4% compared to 18.6% in 2019. Mixed marriages (in which one groom is Italian and the other foreign) amount to over 14 thousand (about 10 thousand less than the previous year) and continue to represent the largest part of marriages with at least one foreign spouse: about eight out of 10 marriages with at least one foreigner are made up of mixed couples. Over three quarters of mixed marriages concern couples with an Italian groom and a foreign bride (10,870, equal to 11.2% of the celebrations nationwide in 2020). There are 3,453 Italian women who have chosen a foreign partner, 3.6% of the total number of brides.The citizenships involved are very different depending on the type of couple considered. Italian men who married a foreign citizen in 2020 have a Romanian wife in 18.0% of cases, Ukrainian in 14.9%, Russian in 7.5% and Brazilian in 5.9%. Italian women who have contracted marriage with a foreign citizen, on the other hand, have more frequently spouses with Moroccan citizenship (15.5%) or Albanian (10.6%). Our country, continues Istat, also has a strong attraction for many citizens coming mainly from advanced developing countries who choose Italy as a place to celebrate their wedding. Obviously, in 2020 also this type of marriage (represented by couples of both foreigners in which neither of them is a resident) underwent a significant decline due to the restrictions imposed on international mobility, passing from 4,094 in 2019 to 918 in 2020 (-77, 6%). Taking into account only the marriages of foreigners in which at least one of the two spouses is resident in Italy (therefore purified from the effect of “marriage tourism”), 3,591 weddings were celebrated in 2020 (-39.4%). The most common are those between Romanian citizens (859 in 2020, equal to 23.9% of marriages between resident foreign spouses), Nigerians (607, equal to 16.9%) and Ukrainians (317, equal to 8.8%) The reasons for these different nuptial behaviors are likely to be sought in the migratory projects and in the cultural characteristics of the different communities, as well as in the male or female prevalence that the communities present. In many cases, Istat continues, immigrant citizens marry in their country of origin and the spouses face the migratory experience together, or they reunite in our country when one of the two has stabilized. The share of marriages with at least one foreign spouse is notoriously higher in the areas where the settlement of foreign communities is more stable and rooted, that is, in the North and Center. In these two areas of the country almost one in four marriages has at least one foreign spouse while in the South this type of marriage reaches 11.3%. At the regional level at the top of the ranking are Umbria (25.8%), Lombardy (25.2%), Emilia-Romagna (25.1%) and Marche (24.8%).