The number of people in East Renfrewshire getting hitched increased by 39% in 2022, latest figures show.

There were 521 marriages across the local authority area last year, compared to 376 in 2021.

Within that figure, the number of same sex weddings jumped from nine to 16.

There were also six civil partnerships in East Renfrewshire during 2022, compared to three in 2021. 

The new figures, published by National Records of Scotland (NRS), also show a decrease in the number of births in the local area during the same period, from 790 to 745.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths fell from 994 to 909, in line with the national trend.

In 2022, East Renfrewshire had a population of 96,580, with the majority - 50,308 - being female.

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Across the country, there was a large increase in thenumber of couples tying the knot in 2022, comparable to the post-war booms of 1919 and 1945.

There were 630 civil partnerships registered in 2022, the highest number since 2007. 

The majority of civil partnerships in Scotland (84%) last year were mixed sex, following a legislation change in 2021 that allowed this.

The report also revealed that Scotland's Total Fertility Rate (TFR) fell to a new low of 1.28 last year, down from 1.30 in 2021.

TFR must be at least 2.1 for a country's population to replace itself.

Daniel Burns, head of vital events statistics at NRS, said: "Following the global health emergency these statistics show us the scale of the disruption. Only the two world wars have had more impact on the number of marriages taking place.

"There were 62,941 deaths in 2022, down by 1% on 2021. There were 15,982 more deaths than births. This measure is sometimes called 'natural change.' 

"The last time Scotland had more births than deaths was in 2014. Scotland's overall population has continued to grow since this time through inward migration alone."