Marriage is becoming less common in New Zealand - though the rate of divorces has also decreased, new figures reveal.

Despite a steadily rising population, the general marriage rate has dropped, according to Statistics NZ.

In 1992, the marriage rate was 18.3 couples per 1000 people eligible to marry (or form a civil union from 2005). This has dropped to 10.9 couples in 2017.

"The highest number of marriages and civil unions in the last 25 years was in 2008, when 22,275 couples celebrated," said population insights senior manager Brooke Theyers.

"The lowest number was in 2013, when 19,425 couples celebrated."

The same lower marriage trend is also taking place in Britain and Australia.

But the number of divorces had also dropped over the past 25 years.

In 2017, 8001 couples split up and the number of divorces per 1000 existing marriages was 8.4.

This was in comparison to a divorce rate of 11.9 in 1992.