Ratio of the number of marriages in a given period (usually year) to the number of population at mid-term or average number of population in this period – expressed in ‰ (i.e. per 1000 population). Another, less commonly used definition is: ratio of the number of marriages to the number of population legally entitled to marriages (for practical reasons, the number of people aged 15 and more is adopted most often - which increases the possibility of comparisons).

Marriage rates for different periods (month, quarter, half year, three quarters, etc.) are calculated on an annual basis, i.e. that the examined facts recorded in a given period are increased accordingly to the annual volumes, e.g. for the rate calculated for the period: month – the number of facts is multiplied by 12, quarter – by 4, half of the year – by 2, three quarters – by 4/3.

• Marriage