Latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that marriages are decreasing and couples are getting older.
ONS figures for marriages in 2018 show that there were 234,795 marriages in England and Wales; a decrease of 3.3% compared with 2017 and the lowest since 2009. Marriage rates for opposite-sex couples were also the lowest on record, with 20.1 marriages per 1,000 unmarried men and 18.6 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women.
Same-sex marriage rates have remained steady at 6,925 marriages in 2018, similar to numbers in previous years.
Kanak Ghosh, from the ONS stated that the latest figures “continue the gradual long-term decline in both numbers and rates since the early 1970s.” Since 1972, the number of opposite-sex marriages has decreased by 46.5%, while marriage rates have fallen by more than three-quarters for men and by 70.7% for women.
But, he said,
”this is the fifth year since same-sex marriages have been possible and around one in thirty-five marriages are now among same-sex couples.”
It is thought that the long-term decline in marriage rates is likely to be as a result of more men and women delaying marriage or couples choosing to cohabit instead.
Alice Rogers, a senior associate with Hall Brown Family Law, agrees that the figures reflect a changing attitude towards marriage, stating that,
“the increase in cohabitation makes clear that men and women are still establishing settled relationships but don’t feel the need for the formality and expense associated with marriage”.
“Couples now place a greater premium on investing the kind of sums which they might once have spent on their wedding day putting down a deposit on a home instead.”
But this downward trend is set to decline even further due to challenges presented by the pandemic.
“The fact that the fall in marriage numbers predates the Covid pandemic would indicate that we will see an even more severe drop because people could not marry at all,”
Rogers added.
The ONS data also reveals that marriages in the under 20s have declined sharply in the last decade, by around 60%. But says Ghosh, “more people are choosing to get married at older ages, particularly those aged 65 and over.”
Figures also reveal that men tend to form relationships with women younger than themselves. In 2018, the average age at marriage for opposite-sex couples was 38.1 years for men and 35.8 years for women, continuing the trend that average marriage ages have been rising since the 1970s. Among same-sex couples, more women than men married at ages under 50 years, whereas more men married at ages 50 years and over.
Roopa Ahulwalia, a partner and head of family law at BDB Pitmans, commented,
“the pandemic has also put weddings back and no doubt we will see an increase in average ages”.
She also commented on how these figures might translate for legal professionals:
“Often individuals by this time in their lives will have amassed their own assets, usually a home, a healthy income and pension. They may also be closer to receiving an inheritance of some form.”
“I can foresee a greater need and reliance on prenuptial agreements as couples seek to protect their premarital financial endeavours.”
The full ONS report can be accessed here.
