Population trend figures published the Office for National Statistics only serve to strengthen the case for cohabitation reform say family lawyers, with declining marriage and divorce rates and an increase in the proportion of couples co-habiting.
The latest figures show 60.5% of the population in England and Wales in 2024 aged 16 or over are now either living with a legal partner or cohabiting. The number of marriages has fallen by two percentage points over the last 10 years, with the proportion of people in marriages or civil partnerships decreasing from 51.5% in 2014 to 49.5% in 2024; although it remains the largest partnership status.
One million more people were cohabiting by 2024 than in 2014, up from 11.9% to 12.9% in the last decade and 36.8% of the co-habiting population (up from 33.9% in 2014) were never married or civil partnered.
These statistics confirm that cohabiting couple families remain the fastest growing family type – a trend that clearly has not changed since a decade ago – and further strengthens the case for cohabitation reform said, Sital Fontenelle, Head of Kingsley Napley’s Family & Divorce practice, calling on the government to set a firm date for its proposed formal consultation it committed to by the end of 2025.
“We urgently need a public dialogue on what legal reform in this area should look like, given legislative change takes time. Scotland, Ireland and Australia provide models for approaches we could take, although none are perfect solutions. English law is not only out of date for societal norms but also compared to other jurisdictions.
“The current lack of rights here when co-habiting couples split leaves many women, who are the primary or sole caregivers, facing financial hardship and, of course, this impacts the children involved. If the Government wants to be true to its pledge on tackling childhood poverty this could be an important area to address. The children of co-habiting parents need better protection from the breakdown of their parents’ relationship if it plunges their parents into financial difficulty. The Women and Equalities Committee’s report recommended change, noting that the current law disadvantages women upon separation.”
The statistics suggest many couples no longer aspire to marriage, adds Kirsty Morris, partner at Burgess Mee:
“For a long time, cohabitation was seen as the precursor to marriage but that is no longer the case. Today’s figures show that cohabiting couples are the norm, with some 6.5 million adults in England & Wales choosing to live in committed, cohabiting relationships without tying the knot – up from 5.5 million people in 2014.
“However, the legal provisions afforded to cohabiting couples on separation are still not in line with society’s expectations. Despite the current Labour government’s promise to push forward with legal reform to allow financial claims for cohabiting couples, so far no firm proposals have been announced. England & Wales lag behind Scotland, Ireland and Australia where legal financial provisions for cohabitants have been in place for some time.
“Cohabiting couples should have some basic level of financial rights following the end of a long-term committed relationship, or one into which children were born, to ensure that both people can continue to meet their financial needs. They should also be afforded some level of financial protection on one partner’s death.
In the last week the government have announced plans to consult of changes to wedding regulation, with proposals to regulate officiants, rather than locations, in an effort to provide greater flexibility for couples on where they get married instead of being tied to particular locations. Indeed the statistics suggest wholesale consideration of the legal nature of relationships is much needed said Jemma Pollock, partner in the Family team at Russell-Cooke:
“It is interesting to note that the number of civil partnerships has increased substantially – up 73% from 217,584 in 2022 to 375,851 in 2024. And only 7% of those aged 30 or under were married, but 18% of them were in cohabiting relationships. Whilst some of those will go on to enter into marriages or civil partnerships, many others will not to do so. 15% of those aged 30 – 44 and 11% of those aged 45 to 59 were in a cohabitating relationships. Those couples have no financial rights against each other, regardless of the length of their relationship, the level of commitment and financial dependency, or even the existence of children. Instead, they are left to the complexities of trusts law about their homes and the limitations of Schedule 1 and the Child Maintenance Service for financial provision for their children. This is a law designed for a society which hasn’t existed for decades now and reform is increasingly urgent.”
“Not only do these changes reiterate the urgent need for reform when considering the legal rights for cohabitating couples but it also remains to be seen whether the latest plans to reform marriage law will have a further impact on these figures moving forward.”
Ultimately ‘it’s time family law caught up with modern love and relationships’ said Nick Gova, Partner and Head of Family Law at Spector Constant & Williams. ‘Marriage is no longer the majority model, yet our laws still treat it as the gold standard’ There is a ‘growing appetite for legal recognition outside traditional marriage’ he added and the law must evolve to reflect these diverse and changing relationship choices.
The latest figure serve to add weight to the ‘now deafening calls’ for family law to be updated to reflect our modern society.
