Tu B'Av 2016: Israelis are in no rush to marry, new report finds

Israelis may fall in love, but they are in no rush to marry, according to a new Central Bureau of Statistics survey released ahead of Tu B'Av, the Israeli Valentine's Day, which falls this Friday.

The report on marriage and divorce trends in Israel found that the average age at which Israelis marry for the first time has risen in recent decades. For men, the average age of marriage rose from 25 in 1970 to 27.6 in 2015. For women, it rose from 21.7 to 25 in the same time frame.

The data also shows an increasing number of second marriages: Of all couples who married in 2014, 5.1% were marriages between two divorcees, 4.4% were marriages between a single woman and a divorced man, and 2.9% were between a single man and a divorced woman.

Despite these changes, Israel's first-time marriage rate is one of the highest among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations: For every 1,000 people, around 6.2 couples marry each year. However, 21.9%, no fewer than 11,114 couples, divorced within two years of marrying.

Tel Aviv holds the record for the Israeli city with the most single and divorced residents: 83% of Tel Aviv's men and 70% of its women aged 25-29 are single.

The findings also indicate a growing phenomenon of older singles. Here too, Tel Aviv is the leader, with 48% of men and 24% of women aged 45-49 who live in the city never having married.

Tel Aviv also holds the record for most divorces in 2015, with 763 couples divorcing that year. Jerusalem comes in second with 728 divorces, followed by Rishon Lezion with 431 divorces. The fewest divorces were noted in the small northern city of Kiryat Tivon (29) and the central city of Azur (23).

According to the CBS data, the number of singles of both sexes has also been increasing in the ultra-Orthodox communities, in which members usually marry young. In Bnei Brak, 20% of young men and 13% of young women are single.

According to the data, 50,797 couples entered their first marriage in 2014, of them 36,900 Jews, 11,878 Muslims, 1,078 Druze and 860 Christians.