Wellington, Aug 5 : The number of marriages, civil unions, and divorces in New Zealand fell sharply in 2020 likely to be caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Thursday. "Last year, 16,779 New Zealand residents celebrated a marriage or civil union," Xinhua news agency quoted Stats NZ population estimates and projections manager, Hamish Slack as saying in a statement. "Marriages and civil unions have decreased over the last couple of years, down from 19,071 in 2019 and 20,949 in 2018, but with a sharper drop in 2020 than in previous years, likely due to the Covid-19 pandemic," Slack said. There was a noticeable drop in marriages coinciding with Covid-19 alert level 4 when people are required to stay at home or move within 2 km from home to prevent community transmission of the virus, he said. During the second quarter (April-June 2020) there were only 1,278 marriages and civil unions, compared with 3,957 in 2019. However, during the other three quarters there were slightly more marriages per quarter in 2020 compared with 2019, Slack added. The rate of marriages per 1,000 people eligible to marry has dropped to its lowest rate of 8.3 in 2020. This is likely the result of the drop in number of marriages and the continuing population increase, Slack said. The peak marriage rate was in 1971 with 45.5 couples tying the knot per 1,000 eligible people, and it has been trending downwards since, he said. Married couples in New Zealand are required to be separated for at least two years prior to applying for a divorce, which means the effect of Covid-19 on divorces cannot be determined yet, Slack said. After a rise in the number of couples granted a divorce in 2019, which was 8,388 divorces, compared with 7,455 in 2018, the number dropped to 7,707 in 2020. This continues the general downward trend in divorces since the peak in 1982, statistics showed. In 2020 the divorce rate was 7.6 per 1,000 married couples, compared with an average of 8.4 over the previous five years, Stats NZ said. The impact of Covid-19 border closures was reflected in the sharp drop in marriages and civil unions for overseas residents in New Zealand. In 2020, only 1,248 marriages and civil unions were registered to overseas residents, down from 2,889 in 2019 and 3,120 in 2018, it said. For the overseas residents who did marry in New Zealand in 2020, 90 per cent of these marriages took place in the months of January, February, and March, before the Covid-19 alert level 4 restrictions came into place in late March, Slack said. /IANS