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(Amsterdam, The Netherlands) After a flurry of same-sex marriages in 2001 when The Netherlands became the first country in the world to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed the number of couples marrying has leveled off the government said Monday.
Nearly 2,500 same-sex couples married in 2001, but since then the number has dropped to just over a thousand a year according to Statistics Netherlands, a government agency that keeps track of trends in The Netherlands.
In 2002 some 1800 gay and lesbian couples tied the knot and the numbers began to fall each year after that.
By 2004 about 1,200 same-sex couples married. Last year it was just 1,100. This year Statistics Netherlands said it expects about 1,200 gay weddings. The agency said that it appears the decline has leveled off.
It said that it believes the higher numbers in the first two years of same-sex marriage reflected the nigh number of couples who had been together for some time and who wanted to take advantage of the new law.
Since then the numbers show the backlog of couples seeking to marry has diminished and those now marrying are a better indication of same-sex marriage in general in The Netherlands.
But the agency also notes that marriage in general - both same-sex and opposite-sex - has fallen off noticeably over the past five years.
It also said that the percentage of same-sex couples divorcing is about the same for gay and straight couples.
©365Gay.com 2006
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