Marriage and civil ceremony statistics are released

Minister of Finance and Personnel Sammy Wilson outlined the total number of marriages and civil partnerships registered each year since the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act in response to a query at the Stormont Assembly.

Wedding bells rang for 1,476 couples in Londonderry over the past three years.

This was a lower rate than in Belfast, Newry and Mourne and North Down.

But Civil Partnership - though a far rarer occurrence than marriage - was registered here at a greater rate than anywhere outside Belfast.

Thirty-one couples registered as civil partners over the past three years in the Derry City Council according to the figures.

Mr Wilson advised that the data referred to where the marriages and Civil Partnerships were registered and did not necessarily reflect where either the bride or groom lived.