Valentine's Day Proposalversaries: Facts and Figures

I was curious about how many couple's get engaged on Valentine's Day so I tried to find some statistics. I was kind of surprised by what I learned. For one thing, who knew the U.S. Census Bureau kept (sort of) certain statistics of the nature I was looking for?

Did You Know? *It's estimated that 2.2 million couples get married each year. That stat came from a 2006 Census Bureau report, but they didn't have any specific break down about percentage of engagements that take place on Valentine's Day. I did run across one site that credited the Diamond Information Center with publishing a stat that approximately 10% of marriage proposals will happen on Valentine's Day.

*Valentine's Day is one of the most popular days to get engaged, but so is Christmas (figured that), Thanksgiving (surprise), New Year's Eve (didn't occur to me), and the bride-to-be's birthday (I wouldn't have thought of this one right off, but I have heard of that and it makes perfect sense).

*According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the most popular gift given to celebrate Valentine's Day is greeting cards. (65%.)

*According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the gift used least to celebrate Valentine's Day is jewelry. (Only 11%.)

*The United States isn't the only country to celebrate Valentine's Day. So does Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and Australia.

*The first Valentine thought to ever be written dates back to 1415 when Charles, the Duke of Orleans, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London, sent a love letter to his wife. It even still exists. (As part of the British Library's collection.)

*About 40% of the 180 million Valentine's cards purchased will be done so by parents. (Now whether this is for their children or by people who have children wasn't clear, which I thought made it an even more interesting statistic.)

*It's estimated 15% of women will send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day.

Written by Courtney Mroch