Marriages in the U.S. have rebounded to pre-COVID levels, passing 2 million for the first time since 2019.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday that a “significant uptick” in couples getting hitched resulted in 2,065,905 marriages in 2022, or 6.2 for every 1,000 people. The U.S. population was 333,287,557 that year.

That’s even higher than the 2,015,603 couples who got married in 2019 at a rate of 6.1 weddings for every 1,000 people, according to the provisional tally from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

It’s also the highest marriage rate since 6.5 weddings occurred for every 1,000 people in 2018.

“The most substantial percentage increases in 2022 compared with 2021 occurred in New York (21%), the District of Columbia (14%) and Hawaii (13%),” Brian Tsai, a CDC spokesman, wrote in a summary of the data. “Nevada maintained its status as the state with the highest marriage rate in 2022, although it experienced a 1% decrease from 2021.”

Except for 2020 and 2021, the CDC has recorded more than 2 million weddings a year since 2000. The marriage rate was 8.2 weddings per 1,000 people that year, based on the smaller population then.

Nevada and Hawaii were the top wedding destination states in 2022, with 25.9 and 14.4 marriages per 1,000 people, respectively. Montana (9.9), Utah (9.9), and Arkansas (7.9) rounded out the top five.

The NCHS report noted that marriage rates matched or exceeded 2019 levels in 36 states, and rates dropped in 12 states.

By comparison, Mr. Tsai noted that the number and rate of divorces dropped slightly, “continuing a longstanding downward trend.”

The report found that divorces declined from 695,509, or 2.5 or every 1,000 people, in 2021 to 673,989, or 2.4 per 1,000 people, in 2022. The divorce data didn’t include California, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota and New Mexico.

“The most recent low for the divorce rate was in 2020 when the rate was 2.3,” Mr. Tsai noted.

• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.