Marriages increase in Wisconsin, again

For the second straight year, the number of people who got married in Wisconsin went up and the number of couples who called it quits dropped.

The increases in marriages in both 2011 and 2012 come after a 30-year decline.

The annual report on marriages and divorces issued by the state Department of Health Services this week shows that 30,940 couples tied the knot in 2012. That is up from 30,287 the previous year.

The numbers are still far below the highest mark — 41,113 in 1980.

At the same time marriages have been going up, divorces have dropped.

There were 16,332 divorces in the state last year, the second year in a row it has gone down. There were 303 fewer divorces in 2012 compared with 2011.