Since the 1970s, the marriage rate for opposite-sex couples in England and Wales has declined considerably, with the marriage rate per thousand population falling from 84 to 20.3 for men between 1972 and 2022, and from 63.5 to 18.3 for women, during the same time period. Three spikes in the marriage rate can be seen in 1915, 1920 and 1940, all likely influenced by the impact of the First and Second World Wars. The drop in the marriage rate in 2020 can be attributed to the COVID-19 lockdowns.

The marriage rate in England and Wales, defined as the number of people marrying per 1,000 unmarried people in the population aged 16 and over, was 17.9 in 2019. Before 2020, which was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the lowest marriage rate in the provided time period.

Number of marriages that took place in England and Wales by age, sex, previous partnership status and civil or religious ceremony.

Annual statistics on the number of marriages and marriage rates. Statistics are also included on the day, month and quarter of occurrence. Some tables provide data back to 1837.

In 2019, 253,112 marriages took place in the UK in 2019, a decrease from 2018 when there were 270,286. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were just 100,899 marriages in 2020, the fewest during this time period.

Statistics on marriages which took place in England and Wales which include figures on cohabitation before marriage. The cohort analyses provide statistics on the proportion of men and women who have ever married or remarried by certain ages by year of birth.

In 2022, approximately 66,081 women aged between 30 and 34 got married to men in England and Wales, the most common age group for women marrying opposite-sex partners. The most common age group for men marrying women in this year was also 30 to 34, at 67,225.

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.

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 ****.

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

Information on the number of cases reported to the government’s Forced Marriage Unit via its public helpline and email inbox during a particular calendar year. The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Home Office unit working on the government’s forced marriage policy, outreach and casework. It operates both inside the UK, where support is provided to any individual, and overseas, where consular assistance is provided to British nationals, including dual nationals.

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.

In 2022, over 28.9 million people in England and Wales were single, compared with 24 million who were married. In the same year, there were 3.8 million people who were divorced, and 3.13 million people who were widowed.

The Great Britain Historical Database has been assembled as part of the ongoing Great Britain Historical GIS Project. The project aims to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain at sub-county scales. Further information about the project is available on A Vision of Britain webpages, where users can browse the database's documentation system online.

The Great Britain Historical GIS Project has also produced digitised boundary data, which can be obtained from the UK Data Service Census Support service. Further information is available at census.ukdataservice.ac.uk

Between same-sex marriage being legalized in England and Wales on March 29, 2014 and December 31, 2022, there have been 55,613 same-sex marriages. Of these, 32,240 same-sex marriages were between two women, and 23,,373 were between two men.

There were 24,284 marriages in Scotland in 2021, an increase of around 12,300 marriages when compared with the previous year when there were 11,986 marriages, the fewest number of marriages in the provided time period. All marriages before 2014 were for opposite-sex marriages, with same-sex marriage first made legal in Scotland on December 16, 2014 following the Marriage and Civil Partnership Act. During this time period, the year with the most marriages was 1940, when there were over 53,500 marriages. Almost half of Scots married In 2018, 47 percent of Scots were either married or in a civil partnership, with a further 37 percent of people being single. Divorced and widowed Scots made up ten and seven percent of the population respectively. For Scots who were married, 32 percent were aged between 45 and 59 with the next most common age group being those aged between 60 and 74 at 28 percent of married people. During the same year, 10 percent of Scots were divorced, with the overall number of divorces in Scotland generally falling since 2006 when there were 13,012. Marriage trends in the rest of the UK For the whole of the United Kingdom, there were 253,112 marriages in 2019, compared with 270,286 in 2018. In the same year, the average age at marriage in England and Wales was 39.7 years for men marrying women, 37.3 years for women marrying men, 40.8 years for men marrying men, and 37.4 for women marrying women. Like in Scotland, the overall number of divorces in the UK has been declining since the mid-2000s, with 112,182 in 2020, compared with 166,669 in 2004.