The number of marriages concluded between partners of Russian and Ukrainian nationality also rose last year, the agency says.

Tartu in particular saw a rise in the number of people getting hitched - head of the Tartu city government's population department Kristina Aabrams told ERR that the numbers were effectively a record.

"The last time there were so many marriages was perhaps in the early 90s. I didn't expect such an increase," Aabrams said.

"This certainly gives people confidence. I'm very happy that people are valuing marriage," she went on.

While Tartu sees an average of 550 marriages per year, last year the figure was nearly 200 higher.

Seven percent of people who got married at ceremonies conducted in Tartu last year were from a foreign country, including places as far afield as New Zealand and Brazil, ERR reports, while the large numbers of Ukrainian and Russian citizens getting married in Estonia's second city was also noticeable.

Aabrams said: "Last year, there were indeed more Ukrainians who got married, for a reason, of course," referring to the surge in the number of Ukrainian people fleeing the Russian invasion, who have arrived in Estonia.

"I personally think that people want more security than before," she added.

In the capital, close to 300 more marriages were concluded in 2022 than in 2021, with almost half of them conducted at the well-known "wedding palace" on Pärnu mnt, in fact the office of the Vital Statistics Department (Perekonnaseisuamet).

Nationwide, nearly 6,400 marriages were concluded last year, up from close to 5,900 in 2019, ERR reports.

In 2018, fewer than 1,000 marriages involving a woman of Russian nationality took lace, compared with 1,400 last year, the agency says, while just 12 marriages involving a woman who was a Ukrainian citizen were recorded in 2018, while last year the figure was nearly five times higher.

Nonetheless, citizens from the Russian Federation and from Ukraine made up the largest share of foreign citizens getting married in Estonia in previous year, Kristi Kail, deputy head of Statistics Estonia's population department, told ERR, via a written comment.

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