862 civil partnerships have taken place in Ireland since April 2011 when they became legal.
Of that 582 were male couples and 334 were female couples.
The figures were released today by the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network – GLEN.
They say most were aged between 41 and 50.
However 14 people were aged over 70 and 11 were under 20 years of age.
GLEN says based on the success of civil partnerships it believes Ireland is evolving towards support for civil marriages as the next step for gay and lesbian couples.
The statistics also show:
- Dublin 8 is the most popular metropolitan area with 60 couples from there having civil partnerships
- Cork is the most popular area in Munster with 30 couples living in Cork city and a further 46 living in Cork County
- In Connaught it’s Galway with 12 couples living in Galway city and a further 17 couples in Galway county.
After Dublin Co. Wicklow is the most popular in Leinster with 31 couples from there having civil partnerships while Donegal is most popular in Ulster with 11 couples.
The people entering an Irish civil partnership came from Ireland and from 60 other countries throughout the world – including the UK, Brazil, Australia, the Philippines, Poland and the United States.
Civil Partners have the same rights and obligations as opposite-sex married couples in an extensive range of areas including tax, inheritance, next of kin, social welfare, immigration, pensions, home protection and have the same protections as married couples in employment and equality protections.
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