2022 saw nearly 2.1m marriages, up slightly from 2019 – but still far below their height in 1946

US marriages have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, with more than 2m such unions in 2022 – while the divorce rate continued to fall, according to the federal government.

The total of almost 2.1m “I do’s” in 2022 marks a 4% increase from the year before. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the data on Friday, but it has not released marriage data for last year.

In 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, there were only 1.7m US weddings – the lowest number recorded since 1963. The pandemic threw many marriage plans into disarray, as communities ordered people to stay at home and banned large gatherings to limit the spread of Covid, which has killed more than a million Americans and millions more around the world.