There were 759 same-sex marriages in Ireland in 2017.

New figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show 424 of these were male unions and 335 were female.

However this is a drop in the number of same-sex marriages compared to 2016, when 1,056 couples tied the knot.

The average age of couples in same-sex marriages was 40.4 years. Over 69% of same-sex couples have civil marriage ceremonies.

This is followed by The Humanist Association of Ireland with 14.6% of ceremonies, The Spiritualist Union of Ireland accounted for 10.0% of ceremonies and the remainder had ceremonies with other religious denominations.

Over one-third of all same sex marriage ceremonies took place in the Dublin City area - followed by Meath.

September was the most popular month for same-sex marriages in 2017, with 12.9% marriages.

Source: CSO

As with opposite-sex marriages, Sunday was the least popular day for same sex marriages couples wed.

Friday September 1st was the most popular date for same-sex marriages last year, followed by Friday June 23rd.

More than 78% of same sex marriages were first time marriages.

Overall, religious ceremonies accounted for 63% of all marriages.

There were 11,219 Catholic marriage ceremonies, 379 Church of Ireland ceremonies, The Spiritualist Union of Ireland performed 1,159 and 1,120 couples opted for other religious ceremonies.

There were 21,262 opposite sex marriages in 2017. The average age of grooms was 36.1 years, 0.4 years more than the average age of grooms in 2016.

Source: CSO

August was the most popular month for opposite sex marriages with 2,777 taking place that month.

The groom older than bride in 63% of opposite sex marriages, and over 87% were first time marriages.

The most recent divorce data available, for 2015, shows there were 3,289 divorces granted by the Circuit Court and the High Court.

This was an increase of 660 on the 2014 figure.

Ireland had an overall marriage rate of 4.6% in 2017.