Nearly half of couples married last year picked a lab-grown stone for their engagement ring, according to wedding website The Knot.
The 46% of couples choosing lab-grown for the center stone was nearly four times as high as the 12% reported in The Knot’s 2019 survey.
About 1 in 3 couples said having a lab-grown stone is important to them; fewer than 1 in 5 (17%) said so in 2019.
For the survey, The Knot polled more than 9,300 couples who got married in 2023.
The ring is still a key part of the engagement ritual, with 95% of couples getting a ring and 85% buying a diamond.
The Knot found that the average diamond size in an engagement ring increased to 1.6 cts. last year. Nearly a third of engagement rings totaled over 2 cts. (including side stones and accents)—a 10% jump from 2019, which The Knot attributed to the rise of lab-created diamonds, as consumers can get bigger gems for less money when they’re lab-made. The average size of a lab-grown diamond in an engagement ring, 1.9 cts., is slightly higher than the average size overall, the report noted.
One surprising finding: More consumers are buying moissanite. Nearly 3 in 10 couples who chose a non-diamond stone went with moissanite, a 10% jump in popularity since 2019, according to the study.
Round continues to be the most popular shape for an engagement ring diamond—chosen by 34% of couples—but its popularity has dropped about 15% since 2015, The Knot said. Oval came in second among diamond shapes, favored by 23% of couples (up 21% from 2015), and pear or teardrop shape claimed an 8% share of the market.
Finally, yellow gold is on the rise (though not as much as the gold price) for engagement rings. White gold remains the most common type of metal in engagement rings, selected by 39% of couples, but 31% chose yellow gold—up from 15% three years ago.
(Photo: Getty Images)
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