Canadians were in no rush to head to the altar in 2003, even after the legalization of gay marriage in British Columbia and Ontario, suggests a  Statistics Canada survey.

In fact, fewer Canadian couples got hitched in nearly every province and territory, shows the survey released Wednesday. 

The only exceptions were in Ontario and B.C. — both including same-sex marriage statistics for the first time — and the Yukon, where the crude marriage rate went up 10.5 per cent because of 15 more marriages.

"The crude marriage rate has plateaued at the moment, but what's interesting is that the only two provinces where there was an increase in marriage were the provinces where same-sex marriage was allowed," Statistics Canada analyst Brigitte Chavez told the CBC.

The crude marriage rate is the number of marriages occurring among a population of 1,000 persons in a given year.

Ontario legalized same-sex marriages in June and B.C. passed a law in July.

It isn't possible to tell how many Ontario marriages were same-sex unions as Ontario does not log that data, but there were 774 in B.C. Of the gay marriages, more female couples exchanged vows: 422, compared to 352 for marriages among men.

     MARRIAGES IN CANADA 2003
 Province  Number in 2002  Number in 2003  2002 to 2003 % change  2003 crude marriage rate
 Newfoundland and Labrador  2,959  2,876  -2.8  5.5
 Prince Edward Island  901  823  -8.7  6.0
 Nova Scotia  4,899  4,742  -3.2  5.1
 New Brunswick  3,818  3,724  -2.5  5.0
 Quebec  21,987  21,138  -3.9  2.8
 Ontario  61,615  63,485  3.0  5.2
 Manitoba  5,905  5,659  -4.2  4.9
 Saskatchewan  5,067  4,977  -1.8  5.0
 Alberta  17,981  17,622  -2.0  5.6
 British Columbia  21,247  21,981  3.5  5.3
 Yukon  143  158  10.5  5.2
 Northwest Territories  144  139  -3.5  3.3
 Nunavut  72  67  -6.9  2.3
 Canada total  146,738  147,391  0.4  4.7

With only 653 more marriages recorded than in the previous year, the overall number of Canadian couples tying the knot barely rose from 2002.

The latest numbers were in line with a trend of stagnation in the crude marriage rate, which has been at its record low of 4.7 marriages for every 1,000 people since 2001.

Chavez said the plateau follows a "flurry of activity" around 2000. That year was the latest peak, "presumably because [couples] chose to marry at the start of the new millennium and were waiting."

Single people were also waiting longer to get married. In 2003, the average age of newlywed men marrying women was 30.6 years, excluding Ontarians. Women were 28.5 years old when they exchanged vows for the first time.

"People are waiting longer to marry, either because they are cohabiting or delaying marriages because they are studying or establishing themselves economically," Chavez said.

Marriage statistics by gender were not available for Ontario, as the province does not identify the sex of the person getting married.