Issues@Hand

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October 2017 – For the past few years, reports have indicated that fewer Americans are getting married, or marry later in life than previous generations. Now, businesses catering to the wedding industry are feeling the decline.

The number of weddings taking place in 2016 fell to 2.162 million, according to estimates by Wedding Report. While revenue from the wedding industry had been growing by 4% per year from 2012 to 2014, in 2015, revenue dropped and is expected to slow to 0.3% annual growth over the next five years. This is despite the fact that, since 2009, average spending per wedding increased to $26,720 in 2016, a 26% increase per guest. Currently, the average American wedding includes 141 guests.

The only area that has seen significant growth in wedding celebrations is same sex ceremonies.

“Since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay weddings nationwide two years ago, the Williams Institute estimates about 157,000 same sex couples have gotten married,” stated Bloomberg’s Ben Steverman. “About 1.1 million Americans are married to someone of the same sex, out of an estimated 10.7 million LGBT adults in the U.S.”

onenewsnow.com, 8/1/17