Fewer Chinese couples tied the knot last year, even as the number of marriages registered in Singapore grew at a slower pace than it did the year before.

Last year, civil marriages among Chinese couples dipped slightly by 0.7 per cent from 2011 to 16,387, according to figures from the Singapore Department of Statistics.

This is a sharp contrast to the 13.5 per cent increase registered in 2011 from the previous year.

In 2011, 16,499 Chinese couples tied the knot, compared to 14,535 in 2010.

Meanwhile, the number of both civil and Muslim marriages among Indians grew by 7.8 per cent last year, and by 8.6 per cent in 2011 from the year before. The number of Malay marriages registered under the Administration of Muslim Law Act grew at a slightly slower pace last year at 6.4 per cent, compared to 10.7 per cent in 2011.

Associate Professor Daniel Goh from the National University of Singapore's Department of Sociology said that perceptions of economic security could have played a role in shaping marriage decisions in general.

He suggested that there could be a "time-lag effect", comparing Singapore's high gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 14.5 per cent in 2010 and the lower GDP growth of 4.9 per cent in 2011.

Since people in Singapore generally plan for their wedding a year in advance, the extraordinary sense of economic security in 2010 could have led to a spike in marriages in 2011, Prof Goh explained.

Conversely, a dampening of this sense in 2011 due to declining GDP led to a slower growth in marriages last year, he added.

But the trend in Chinese marriages cannot be tied to economic well-being alone.

Dr Mathew Mathews from the Institute of Policy Studies said the cultural preference to bear children in certain zodiac years could be a reason. He said: "It probably is not the most important factor, but it does weigh on some people's minds."

Prof Goh said: "Marrying in a Dragon Year (2012) is not so desirable, as having a child born the next year in the Year of the Snake is not so desirable too." This could possibly account for why Chinese marriages decreased last year.

Both Prof Goh and Dr Mathews said that the marriage statistics did not take into account changes in Singapore's population size, which could influence numbers as well.

Looking forward, Dr Mathews expects the number of inter-ethnic marriages to continue to rise.

The total number of inter-ethnic civil and Muslim marriages rose by 7.5 per cent last year from 2011, and 9.3 per cent in 2011 from 2010.

[email protected]

Get My Paper for more stories.