Marriage among women increased by 5.9%, reaching record high in 2023
In 2023, Brazil recorded 7,000 civil marriages between women—a 5.9 percent increase compared to 2022 (6,600) and the highest figure since the Brazilian statistics agency IBGE began tracking same-sex unions in its Civil Registry Statistics survey in 2013.
The rise in marriages between women in 2023 contributed to a total of 11,200 same-sex marriages in Brazil, representing a 1.6 percent increase compared to 2022.
However, same-sex unions between men declined, totaling 4,175 in 2023—a 4.9 percent drop compared to 2022.
IBGE does not include stable unions in its count and bases its figures on data collected from nearly 20,000 registry offices and courts across the country.
Since 2013, the number of same-sex marriages in Brazil has nearly tripled—from 3,700 in 2013 to 11,200 in 2023.
Every year, marriages between women outnumber those between men. In 2023, they represented 62.7 percent of all same-sex marriages.
The IBGE series began in 2013—the same year the National Council of Justice (CNJ) issued a resolution prohibiting registry offices from refusing to convert same-sex stable unions into marriages.
The CNJ’s measure followed a 2011 decision by the Federal Supreme Court that granted same-sex unions the same legal status as heterosexual ones. Until then, registry offices required judicial authorization to perform same-sex marriages.
Decrease in marriages
The IBGE survey also reveals that there were 929,600 marriages between opposite-sex couples in 2023. Including same-sex marriages, Brazil recorded a total of 940,800 marriages—a 3 percent decrease compared to 2022.
These figures mark a return to the downward trend in the number of civil unions. In 2015, there were 1.137 million, which declined to 1.025 million by 2019. In 2020, a year affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and social isolation measures, the number dropped sharply to 757 thousand. It then rose again in 2021 (932.5 thousand) and 2022 (970 thousand), before falling once more in 2023 (940.8 thousand).
According to Klivia Brayner de Oliveira, manager of the Civil Registry Survey, the decline in marriages may reflect societal changes—what she describes as “a more liquid society.”
“It is no longer an expectation from families or society that a person must be married civilly. People have more freedom to choose whether to marry or to enter a stable union—either formally at a registry office or informally. Since marriage often involves expenses, many people prefer to avoid these costs,” adds Oliveira.
A 2017 Supreme Court ruling established that stable unions and marriages have equal legal standing regarding inheritance rights, granting partners the same inheritance rights as spouses. One key difference is that a stable union does not change a person’s marital status—they remain single, divorced, or widowed, for example.
Divorces
The Civil Registry Statistics Survey reveals that Brazil recorded 440,800 divorces in 2023, with 81 percent (360,800) processed judicially and 18.2 percent (79,600) extrajudicially. The total number of divorces increased by 4.9 percent compared to 2022, when 420,000 divorces were ed.
Researcher Klivia de Oliveira highlights that changes in Brazilian legislation help explain the growth in the number of divorces.
“Since 2010, getting a divorce has become easier—you no longer have to go through a separation process lasting one or two years before filing for divorce,” she explains. “The legislation has evolved to keep pace with society’s changing values,” she adds.
“People may also be less attached to social conventions. Today, divorce is seen as normal—if someone wants to get divorced, they simply do, ” concludes the researcher.
Men tend to divorce at a later age than women, with an average age of 44.3 years at dissolution compared to 41.4 years for women.
The research shows that Brazilian marriages are lasting for shorter periods. In 2010, the average duration between marriage and divorce was 15.9 years, but by 2023, it dropped to 13.8 years.
Children
In 2014, maternal custody ed for 85.1 percent of cases, but by 2023, this had dropped to 45.5 percent.
Shared custody rose significantly from 7.5 percent in 2014 to 42.3 percent in 2023. Paternal custody decreased slightly, from 5.5 percent in 2014 to 3.3 percent in 2023.
The year 2014 marks the beginning of a growing trend in shared custody cases, following a law that prioritizes shared custody when parents cannot agree on who will have primary care of the child.
