Marriages back to pre-pandemic rates

Marriages back to pre-pandemic rates

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released their Marriage statistics for 2021 and 2022. This set are particularly interesting as they show for the first time what the landscape now looks like post COVID pandemic. For example. in 2022 unsurprisingly there were more marriage ceremonies taking place than in 2019.  There were 246,897 marriages in England and Wales in 2022, an increase of 12.3%. This tracks as many couples had to put their weddings on hold during the pandemic so the increase may not be representative of long-term trends. There was also a record number of same-sex marriages in 2022, with 7,800 in total (3.2% of all marriages). Same-sex marriages became possible in 2014 and the ONS reported that 2022 also say the highest number of female same-sex marriages being a total 4,896.

It appears marriage rates have now returned to pre-pandemic levels. In 2022 the rates were 20.8 men and 19.1 women marrying per 1,000 unmarried men and women, respectively. More than 9 in 10 couples who married in 2021 or 2022 were cohabitating prior to marriage and cohabitation prior to opposite-sex marriages was the highest since records began in 1994. In 2022, the most common previous legal partnership status was “never married”, which includes those who have never been in a legal partnership. Over three-quarters of men and women forming opposite-sex marriages had never been previously married (77.4% and 78.7%, respectively). While percentages in 2022 are higher than thirty years ago (71.9% for men and 72.4% for women), this is the most common previous legal partnership status since records began.

Cohabitation prior to marriage has also increased over time. In 2022, the highest levels of cohabitation prior to an opposite-sex marriage were recorded with 9 in 10 couples having previously cohabited. This compares with 59.6% of couples having cohabitated prior to marriage in 1994, the earliest year the data are available. This trend shows that more and more couples feel it is important to live together with their partner before getting married.

2022 also saw a total of 6,879 civil partnerships making up 2.7% of all legal partnership formations. The majority of these were opposite-sex civil partnership formations (2.3%), while 0.4% were same-sex civil partnerships.

At Kerseys, our family law team can deal with any kind of relationship no matter what its status. Whether you are looking to enter into a cohabitation agreement, a pre-nuptial agreement or deal with the consequences of a relationship breakdown, our experience family law solicitors are on hand to help with the transition.

Contact our team today to find out more about our initial consultation process at Kerseys Solicitors in Ipswich at [email protected] or telephone 01473 213311 or Kerseys Solicitors in Felixstowe at [email protected] on 01394 834557 or Kerseys Solicitors in Colchester at
[email protected] on 01206 584584.