Three quarters of married couples in Austria choose the husband’s last name

Almost nine percent each keep their own last name and four percent have a double name. This was the result of a survey commissioned by the online dating agency Parship.at on facts and background information on the subject of marriage with 1,510 people, of whom 718 were in a relationship and (re)married.

According to the representative study, a good six out of 10 Austrians have already married at least once. 44 percent say they are married, which corresponds to around three million people, according to an extrapolation based on the population figures from Statistics Austria. In Austria, every second person between the ages of 30 and 39 has already married. Of these, 45 percent are currently married and six percent are divorced. There is an age gap when choosing a surname: couples under 30 are more likely than average to keep their own surname after getting married (15 percent) or adopt a double name (17 percent).

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When asked what was decisive for the choice of name in their current marriage, a third of those surveyed said that it strengthened the feeling of togetherness as a couple. 3 out of 10 state that their motive is that all (future) family members should have the same name. In third place is (family) tradition (28 percent). “As soon as children are involved, the choice of surname becomes even more important for many, which should be discussed fairly and openly in advance,” Parship psychologist Caroline Erb is quoted as saying.