The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics report has released statistics on romantic relationships and marriages in Israel ahead of Tu B'av, the Jewish holiday of love. Photo: Giufra9396 via Wikimedia Commons,

JNS.org – Many more Israeli couples are living together and having children without getting married, and the number of unmarried mothers is on the rise, according to an Israel Central Bureau of Statistics report released ahead of Tu B’av, the Jewish holiday of love, on Monday.

The report also showed that Israelis are apparently in no rush to get married. Among Israelis aged 25 to 29, 63 percent of men and 46 percent of women are single.

At the same time, the trend of living together and having children while unmarried is growing. The number of unmarried couples living together more than doubled over the last decade, from 29,200 in 2004 to 74,820 in 2014.

The number of babies born to unmarried Jewish women tripled over the last 14 years, from 2,600 in the year 2000 to 7,650 so far this year. The number of single mothers also grew from 8,400 in the year 2000 to more than 17,000 this year.

Still, Israel is considered conservative when it comes to the average age of marriage. For women, the average age rose from 21.8 in 1970 to 25.9 this year, and for men, from 25 to 28.