There were 180,416 marriages in 2021, nearly double the number in 2020. The growth did not make up for the year's loss of the pandemic crisis which, with the celebration of only 96,841 marriages, had led to a decrease of -47.4% compared to 2019. Thus, the decline in nuptiality that has been observed in Italy for over forty years continues. This is what the ISTAT report "Marriages, civil unions, separations, and divorces - Year 2021" reveals, which was released yesterday by the statistical institute. The path to adulthood takes very different paths than in the past, when the primary reason for leaving the nucleus of origin was the desire to form a new family through marriage. According to data from the Survey of Families and Social Subjects (2016), cohabitation outnumbers marriage for the most recent generations of men (1982-1986) (22.5% versus 21.8% of those who leave their parents' home by their thirtieth birthday). For women, leaving the family of origin is still characterized by marriage (40% among those born in the 1980s), followed by more uxorious cohabitation, with percentages gradually increasing from generation to generation.