1400 respondents clicked into the CoCA Inc Survey of Independent Celebrants 2019

1392 celebrants commenced the survey.

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• 93% of respondents where Subdivision C civil marriage celebrants
• 5.5 % of respondents where Subdivision C marriage celebrants for religious organisations or with personal religious beliefs precluding them from marrying same gender couples
• 1% of respondents offered ceremonies other than marriage

• 90% offer ceremonies other than marriage ceremonies

• 67% offer loss related ceremonies and services

• 80% of respondents are female
• 19% of respondents are male

• 85% of respondents are over the age of 50 years
• 9% of respondents are aged between 40 and 49 years
• 6% of respondents are aged between 19 and 39 years

• 52% of respondents reside in capital cities and suburbs
• 27% reside in regional cities and suburbs
• 19% in regional towns or villages
• 4% in rural/remote or off-shore islands.

• 10% of respondents were authorised prior to the introduction of training requirements
  
  
• 89% were authorised in or after 2003. Of these:
  
  
• 45% authorised on the basis of one VET unit "Plan, conduct and review a Marriage Ceremony" CHCMCEL401A (now deleted from CHC02 Community Services Training Package 30/Nov/2008)
• 21% authorised on the basis of the previous Certificate IV in Celebrancy - CHC42608
• 23% authorised on the basis of the new Certificate IV in Celebrancy - CHC41015

• 75% of independent marriage celebrant performed less than 20 marriage ceremonies in 2018,
  including:
  
  55% who performed less than 10 marriage ceremonies and
  7% who performed no marriageceremonies
  
  

• 17% between 20 and 50 marriage ceremonies

• 7% of independent marriage celebrant performed over 50 marriage ceremonies
  including:
  3% over 75 marriage ceremonies, and
  1% performed over 100 marriage ceremonies in 2018

Notes:

• Number of marriages in 2017 were 112,954 of which 78.0 per cent¹ were conducted by civil celebrants = 88104 marriages.

• As there were& 8486 celebrants in 2017², this means an average of 10.4 weddings per independent civil marriage celebrant per annum compared with 35 in 1999, and 64 in 1995.

• As there were 8486 celebrants in 2017, this means an average of 10.4 weddings per independent civil marriage celebrant per annum.
  
  

• The average number of weddings per celebrant pa is 10, compared with 35 in 1999, and 64 in 1995.

• There were 8562 civil marriage celebrants at December 2018³
  
  
• Projections for 2018⁴ would be 94,000 marriages by 8562 means a ratio of 11 marriages per civil marriage celebrant pa.

References:

1. Attorney General’s Website - Find a marriage celebrant - Marriage celebrants conducting civil ceremonies
   https://marriage.ag.gov.au/marriagecelebrants/civil
2. as above
3. The ABS Same-Sex Marriage In Australia - A 2018 Snapshot - preliminary findings showed "3,149 same-sex marriages that occurred in the first 6 months since changes were made to the Marriage Act 1961. Assuming the same rates for the remainder of 2018, this could mean an additional 6,300 marriages for 2018 assuming the marriage rate for straight couples does not decline further.

• 83% of independent marriage celebrants performed 10 or less ceremonies other than marriage in 2018
  
  
• 13% of respondents who performed over 11 ceremonies other than marriage. Of these:
  
  
  • 6% of independent marriage celebrants performed over 45 other ceremonies other than marriage
  • only 1% performing over 100 ceremonies other than marriage in 2018.

• 92% of ceremonies have more than 25 guests, including
  • 8% of ceremonies that have more than 100 guests

Question 11 - 

• 61% Independent marriage celebrants charge about the same or less than a registry office marriage for a basic wedding
  
  
• 35 % charge about the same or less than a registry office for a simple wedding, and
  
  
• 28% charge about the same or less the registry office for a bespoke wedding ceremony.

• 23% of independent marriage celebrants state that celebrancy is a major source of their income - 
• even though 66% who earned less than $10,000 gross from their celebrancy work

• 23% of independent marriage celebrants have full-time work in addition to their celebrancy work
• 29% work part-time to supplement their celebrancy income
• 43% rely on other resources/ retirement income
  
  

• 78% Commonwealth marriage celebrants earned less than $20,000 gross from all their celebrancy work
  
• including 66% who earned less than $10,000 gross from their celebrancy work,
• less than 2% earned a full-time wage equivalent from all their celebrancy work in 2018
  
  

• 77% of Commonwealth marriage celebrants report they would like more weddings and/or other ceremony work
  

• Email, referral from family and friends and referrals from previous clients are the major sources of referral for marriage work
  
  
• Phone, social media and celebrant's websites are secondary sources of referral for marriage work

• 74% of respondents are members of a celebrant association

• 19% of respondents are members of more than one celebrant association

• 60% of respondents considered membership of an approved celebrant association to be important for all independent marriage celebrants

Note:

1. Sample size was only 760 respomdents

• 63% of marriage celebrants said they had professional indemnity and public liability insurance cover, and
  
  
• 54% reported having CALl Copyright Licence cover

• 95% of respondents think Subdivision A and B marriage celebrants need to have some basic training in marriage law
• 93% of respondents think Subdivision A and B marriage celebrants need to be regulated by the Commonwealth Registrar?
• 92% of respondents think Subdivision A and B marriage celebrants need to do the annual compulsory OPD (when mandated for Commonwealth Marriage Celebrants)?
• 86% of respondents think Subdivision A and B marriage celebrants need to pay the annual $240 registration fee?

In relation to a wedding, the following percentage of marriage celebrants surveyed contacted the Marriage Law and Celebrant Section (MLCS) in relation to a wedding in 2018

• by phone - 30%
• by email - 32%
• by post - 4%
  
  
• And 65% of marriage celebrants surveyed made no contact with the MLCS in relation to a wedding in 2018
  

With respect to the MLCS, the percentage of the respondents' experience considered excellent to good, with respect to the following, was

• the answer being delivered in a timely manner - 46%
• the response was clear and helpful - 45%

With respect to the last OPD completed the percentage of respondents who consider the following to be excellent to good was:

• the choice of OPD provider - 60%
• the information provided - 62%
• cost-effectiveness - 57%
• the value of the OPD to the celebrant and The compulsory activity - 55%

With respect to OPD delivery, the percentage of respondents who consider the following to be excellent to good was:

• Face to Face - 62%
• Online and Distance OPD - 19% (average)

• 15% of respondents stated their celebrancy practice been positively affected
• 5% stated their celebrancy practice had been negatively affected
• 8% had concerns about the New Policy with regard to Conflict of Interest
• 11% (148 respondents) made comments on this issue.

See comments on Question 25

• 8% of respondents were unsure or considered they needed additional OPD in relation to the changes of the definition of marriage in Australia
• 19% (265 respondents) made comments on this issue.

See comments on Question 26

• 16% said they had concerns, recommendations or comments on the Commonwealth Marriage Celebrant Program
• 19% (258 respondents) made comments on the Commonwealth Marriage Celebrant Program.

See comments on Question 27