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More people got married in the 2nd year of COVID, especially in New Jersey

Nationally, 2021 saw the biggest year-to-year jump in marriages since the end of World War II.

Arthur Long and Angie Sandoval got married at LOVE Park on Valentine’s Day. The number of weddings has rebounded since the first year of the pandemic, especially across the river in New Jersey.
Arthur Long and Angie Sandoval got married at LOVE Park on Valentine’s Day. The number of weddings has rebounded since the first year of the pandemic, especially across the river in New Jersey.Read moreJessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
    by Tom Avril
    Published 

It’s Valentine’s Day, and love is in the air — especially in New Jersey.

At least, that seems to have been the case for 2021, when many couples rescheduled weddings that had been planned for 2020, the first year of COVID-19.

The Garden State was among the top 10 states with a rebound in couples saying “I do,” with a 24.4% increase — up from 4.1 marriages per 1,000 residents in 2020 to 5.1 marriages per 1,000 in 2021, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

In Pennsylvania, the increase in the marriage rate was not quite as hearty, but still impressive, at 17.4%. And that bump was enough for Pennsylvania to eclipse New Jersey in raw numbers, with 5.4 marriages per 1,000 residents in 2021.

Nationwide, the number of marriages in 2020 was the lowest recorded since 1963, due to pandemic-related delays, the statistics center said.

Couples made up for lost time in 2021, when the marriage rate climbed by 18% — the biggest year-to-year jump since the end of World War II.

No matter how much marriages increase in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or any other Northern state, it seems unlikely they will ever match two warm-weather “destination wedding” states that regularly top the charts. That’s because the rates are calculated by where the weddings take place, regardless of where the lovebirds live.

So Nevada, home to the quickie wedding chapels of Las Vegas, kept its spot as the top U.S. site for tying the knot in 2021, with 26.2 marriages per 1,000 residents — up 24.8% from the rate in 2020.

In second place was Hawaii, with 12.8 marriages per 1,000 residents, up a whopping 73% from the year before.

But can those couples drive to the ceremony on the turnpike? Statistically impossible.