Annual divorce numbers and rates, by duration of marriage, sex, to whom granted and reason, that took place in England and Wales.

In 2021, the divorce rate in England and Wales was *** divorces per thousand married couples, which was significantly higher than the rate in 2018, which was ***. The Divorce rate in England and Wales has been falling steadily since a rate of **** was recorded in 2003 and 2004. In the last available data for Scotland in 2008, the divorce rate was ****.

In 2019, the average age for males divorcing in England and Wales was ****, while for females it was ****. Throughout this period, the average age at which people get divorced has been climbing for males and females.

Ages of husband and wife at marriage, and analyses of the percentage of marriages ending in divorce by year of marriage and anniversary, and proportions of men and women who had ever divorced by year of birth and age.

According to the 2020 UNIDOMO questionnaire, Portugal clearly led the list of European countries with the highest divorce rate per 100 marriages. With 91.5 divorces the Portuguese Republic led the list, followed by Spain and Luxembourg. All three countries boast a significantly higher share than the other European countries, each reporting a divorce rate over 80 divorces.

A different way to look at Portugal

While Portugal clearly has the most divorces per 100 marriages, looking at divorce rates per 1.000 inhabitants in other European countries alters the picture of the country as one unsettled by significant numbers of divorces. With nearly 1.7 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants Portugal has roughly the same divorce rate as Germany and the Netherlands. Interesting is furthermore that although marriages in Portugal tend to result in divorce lightly more often as in Luxembourg (80.3%), the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg experienced a 0.6 point higher divorce rate.

What about the rest of the World?

While compared with Latin American countries like Guatemala or Peru, ranked among the countries with the lowest divorce rates in the world, Luxembourg’s divorce rate seems excessive. However, when compared with divorce rates (per 1.000 inhabitants) of countries like the United States (2.7) or China (3.5) divorce rates from Luxembourg and Europe are not out of the ordinary.

Annual UK and constituent country figures for births, deaths, marriages, divorces, civil partnerships and civil partnership dissolutions.

The average age at which people in England and Wales get married has been rising since the 1970s, with the average age of men marrying women increasing from **** in 1972 to **** by 2019, with the average age for women marrying men going up from **** to **** in the same time period. Since 2014 and the legalization of same-sex marriage in England and Wales, the average age for men marrying men has fluctuated between **** and ****, while the average age for females marrying females has fluctuated between **** and ****. Strong support for same-sex marriage in UK Over ten years after same-sex marriage was legalized in most of the UK, polls have shown consistent support for the legislation. As of May 2025, ** percent of Britons supported same-sex marriage, compared with ** percent who opposed it, and ***** percent who did not know. England and Wales was the first jurisdiction to allow same-sex marriages, with the first marriages taking place in March 2014, followed by Scotland in December of that year. Legislation allowing same-sex marriage was not passed in Northern Ireland until 2019, with the first marriages not taking place in 2020. Most popular wedding dates In 2022, the most popular wedding date across the entire year in England and Wales was July 30, with ***** weddings taking place that day. The next most popular wedding date was August 20, which had ***** weddings, followed by May 28, at *****. All three of these dates were Saturday's, which, at over ** percent of all weddings, was by far the most popular day of the week for weddings to be held the week. As for the most popular month, August had the most weddings held in 2022, at ******, with ****** being held in July, and ****** in June, the second, and third-most popular months for weddings, respectively.

The mean age at first marriage in Spain was, along with Sweden, one of the highest in the European Union. Based on this setup, it is no wonder that the Spanish autonomous communities featured quite elevated numbers - particularly in the Canary Islands, where the average age at first marriage stood at over 41 years old for men and over ** for women in 2023. Easy come easy go Marriage might be undergoing a declining popularity among Spaniards, or so it would seem by its national (heterosexual) marriage figures, which have experienced a slight decrease overtime. In 2023, the Balearic Islands recording the highest numbers on the list of marriage rate in Spain, with a rate of **** marriages per 1,000 people. Moreover, Spain has one of the highest divorce rates in Europe, with **** divorces per 100 marriages carried out in this country in 2020. Ageing: a common problem across the continent The age at first marriage is not the only digit that is on the rise in Spain. Data related to age in the Mediterranean country essentially behaves in a similar fashion as the rest of its European counterparts, whose population is also slowly but surely getting older. In 2023, the life expectancy at birth in Spain stood at ***** years, one of the highest in the world.

August was the most popular month for weddings in England and Wales in 2022, with 33,676 marriages taking place in this month. Unsurprisingly, the other Summer months of June and July were also popular choices, as well as September. With just 6,367 weddings occurring in January, this was the least popular month for weddings. When is the most popular day for a wedding? In 2022, Saturday was the most popular day of the week for weddings, with Friday a distant second. In fact, during that year, the top 31 dates for weddings were all Saturdays, with 3,500 weddings taking place on Saturday July 30, the most popular date for holding a wedding in that year. Monday was the least popular day of the week for a wedding in 2022, while Christmas Day (Sunday 25, December) had just three weddings taking place, the fewest of any date in that year. Cost of weddings on the rise The average cost of a wedding has increased from around 17,300 British pounds in 2021 to approximately 23,250 by 2024. Following the COVID-19 Pandemic, the cost of a wedding fell to 9,100 pounds in 2020, before recovering slightly to around by 2021. Wedding venues were the largest expense, costing around 6,286 pounds, with catering also setting people back by around 4,419 pounds. When compared with other countries, UK weddings cost less than those in the United States, Spain, Italy and Canada, but more than France, Portugal and Mexico, among other countries.