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SINGAPORE \u2013 Wedding bells rang for significantly fewer couples in 2025, with the number of marriages falling to the lowest level since 2020, when Covid-19 restrictions <\/p>\n upended many wedding plans<\/p>\n <\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n There were 24,687 marriages in 2025, a 6.2 per cent fall from the <\/p>\n 26,328 unions in 2024<\/p>\n <\/a>, according to data on the Department of Statistics website.<\/p>\n Academics who study marriage and parenthood said that a 6.2 per cent fall is significant.\u00a0<\/p>\n They noted that the 2025 figure, which is preliminary, also marked the third straight year of declining marriages since the <\/p>\n post-pandemic high of 29,389 marriages in 2022<\/p>\n <\/a>. <\/p>\n They said the continued slide in marriages is likely to weigh on Singapore\u2019s ultra-low total fertility rate (TFR), which is the average number of babies each woman would have during her reproductive years.<\/p>\n The <\/p>\n TFR in 2024 was 0.97<\/p>\n <\/a>, while the 2025 figure has not yet been announced.<\/p>\n But in January, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said that he is <\/p>\n \u201cnot likely to give good news on the TFR front\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> for 2025. <\/p>\n At an Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) conference, he said that past dragon years had seen a baby blip, which is a temporary increase in birth rates.<\/p>\n But the TFR for 2024, a dragon year, <\/p>\n remained the same as for 2023<\/p>\n <\/a>.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cMany people think our TFR has stabilised. So, I keep telling people \u2018no, not quite\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThe (dragon year) blip has allowed it to stay at 0.97, which means I think it will continue to come down.\u201d<\/p>\n