A truth no longer universally acknowledged: fewer than half of adults in England and Wales are married for the third year running, marking a watershed moment in how the country approaches relationship, commitment and family life.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that just 49.5% of adults aged 16 and over are married or in civil partnership.
For some, the trend suggests alternative forms of partnership better matched to modern pressures while for others, the legal fragility of cohabitation and the growth of lone-parent households in cities point towards a more unsettling fallout.
Mahsa, 24 from Camberwell, joins the one in four Britons, according to YouGov polls, who believe marriage is an outdated institution.
She said: “I’ve always been hesitant to think of marriage as anything more than a contract.
“There’s the old cliché of young girls with a scrap-book of their dream wedding dress and husband but, from what I’ve observed around me, I don’t see people holding themselves to that standard anymore.”
In 2024, more than 17.5 million people, roughly 40% of the adult population, had never tied the knot – up from 12.4 million in 2004.
Family law firms recognise multiple factors at play, from cultural liberalisation to high rents, student debt, and the erosion of job security.
Yasmin Khan-Gunns, senior associate at Keystone law, said: “Many couples are choosing to cohabit for years, or permanently, without feeling any pressure to formalise the relationship through marriage.”
She added: “There is also far greater social acceptance of remaining unmarried, especially as women’s financial independence has increased and traditional expectations around marriage have shifted.”
Cohabitation has surged by 74% over the past twenty years across all ages.
Among 30 to 40 year olds, traditionally a key period for family formation, the number of cohabiting couples has risen by more than a million.
Johnny Singh, 45, lives in Kilburn with his long-term partner, although they have been together for many years, the necessity of marriage remains a question mark in their relationship.
Singh said: “When I was younger, the assumption was I would get married and I had no feelings one way or another.
“I spent a lot of time working, travelling, and living in different countries and the time never felt right.
“Now I’m in my 40s, in a long-term stable relationship, but although we’re relatively fortunate financially, it’s still a financial consideration.”
In Camden, Singh is not alone, ONS census data from 2021 recorded that 46.5% of the borough’s adult population has never married or entered a civil partnership, the sixth highest in the country.
But it is Lambeth, Islington and Hackney which form the marriage-averse triptych in England and Wales, where only around 30% of adults are married.
The boroughs also contain some of the highest rates of lone-parent households in the country.
By contrast, more affluent commuter zones such as St Albans, Wokingham, and Guildford stand out in the opposite direction, boasting the highest marriage rates and where less than 17% of children live in a lone-parent dynamic.
Harry Benson, of the campaign group The Marriage Foundation, argues that these geographic patterns are social indicators with serious ramifications.
Benson said: “Name any social indicator – poverty, mental health, education, well-being – and there is a strong connection with family stability and family breakdown.
“If we want to reduce negative social indicators, we have to improve family stability and that means marriage.”
For Singh, the capital’s comparatively relaxed stance towards coupledom bespeaks a kind of freedom.
While acknowledging multiple cultural factors at play, he said: “If you’re a single person in your 30’s or 40’s London is the best place to be.
“It’s by far the best place to meet someone, and there’s very little social stigma about not being married, particularly for women, where they could come under more pressure in more traditional areas.
“Whereas in London, nobody really cares what you’re doing in your personal life.”
Viewed as a safer, easier form of commitment, cohabitation has cemented itself as the preferred arrangement in UK cities and beyond.
However, Natasha Slabas, partner at DMH Stallard, warns that the very legal complexity couples hope to avoid in marriage can become a liability outside of it.
Despite arguing that the divorce legislation formed in the 1970s is in urgent need of reform, Slabas also said the legal procedures of marriage offer a vital safety net that cohabitation does not when a relationship ends.
For cohabiting couples, there is no automatic right to property, assets or long-accumulated belongings.
When couples who have lived together for many years or decades part ways, they can find themselves in disputes that could have been prevented, or at least bounded, by marriage.
The firm notes that pet-ownership disputes are among the most contentious and frequent in cohabitation split cases.
As cohabitation soars in popularity, DMH Stallard, among others, call on the government to introduce legislation tailored to the arrangement’s needs.
If current trends continue, marriage’s decline over the past two decades – a fall of 7% since 2004, suggests that the institution is unlikely to return to majority status any time soon.
Often, however, attitudes towards marriage are more ambivalent than data betrays.
“I don’t think it’s just sentimental nonsense,” said Singh. “I think it’s still important.
“If you take a step back and look at the fight for gay marriage and how important that was for people who were denied the right, I think it shows its relevance.
“And marriages are themselves changing, big fancy weddings are changing, people are thinking of new ways to get married, it’s an institution that shifts and adapts.
“So what we’re seeing is it shift and adapt to the circumstances that marriage bests itself.”
No longer Britain’s assumed default, the question looms whether we are witnessing the reinvention or disintegration of one of the country’s oldest institutions.
Featured image credit: Pixel
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