This poll was conducted throughout Lebanon in order to gauge the outlook on the issue of civil marriage today and the sensitivities underpinning it. A representative sample of 1,350 people was surveyed, with a gender distribution of 62% male and 38% female.

Graph 1 illustrates the division of responses to the proposal of civil marriage as an option that should be available in the country. The gender issue did not play a significant role in the results, with men and women almost equally divided in their inclinations on this question.

The age factor

However, a correlation was detected between age group and propensity toward civil marriage, with younger people being more likely to believe in having the choice of a civil marriage. More than half of respondents (52.2%) aged between 15-24 years believed that this choice should be available, while the percentage progressively decreases in the older age groups as illustrated in Graph 2.

Faith

Another significant link - the role of faith - was found in the distribution of answers on the question of civil marriage. This dynamic seemed to play a major role in the survey, with over 90% of respondents who do not believe in God saying the choice of civil marriage should be available. In addition, out of those who regularly practice religious rituals, only 17.6% supported the choice of a civil marriage while 77% did not favor the option.

Confessional distribution

In terms of confession, Sunnite respondents led the opposition to the civil marriage alternative with 71.8% against it and 24.7% in favor of it. This was followed by Shiite respondents that were 69.2% opposed to the alternative and 25.6% in support of it. Just over half of the Druze surveyed (51.9%) were against it, with 36.4% in favor while Catholics were evenly divided at 45.5% both supporting and opposing the option. The only two confessions that produced a majority on the side of civil marriage were the Maronites and the Orthodox, with 52.6% of Maronites in favor of the initiative and 42.6% against it while 47.7% of the Orthodox respondents agreed on the right to the choice, in contrast to 40.9% who did not consent.

The singles

Unmarried respondents were asked which type of marriage they would choose, with the results shown in Graph 3. A trend was detected in this category revealing that as age increases, religious marriage is preferred. The same question, vis-a-vis gender, revealed that women favored religious marriage more than their male counterparts, with 67.1% of female respondents preferring to choose a religious marriage over a civil ceremony as compared to 60.2% of men who showed a preference for religious marriage.