NICOSIA — Marriage in modern times, under so many stresses, is a declining institution although Cyprus has the highest number in the European Union relative to its population, figures from the bloc's statistics agency Eurostat showed.

Since 1964, the marriage rate in the EU has declined from eight per 1,000 persons in 1964 to 4.3 in 2019 – in half  over those decades, while the number of divorces more than doubled from 0.8 per 1,000 people to 1.8 over that time.

Following Cyprus in having the most married people were the Baltic countries of Lithuania and Latvia, and then Hungary and Romania, while the lowest rates of 3 per 1,000 people was found in Italy, Portugal and Slovenia, The Financial Mirror said.

Latvia and Lithuania also had the most divorces while, curiously at odds with the marriage-mindedness of Cypriots, they were also second in the divorce ratio, fourth behind those Baltic states and Luxembourg.