The age-old question of marriage
People in England and Wales are waiting for longer before they make a marital commitment
M EN and women are now getting married eight years older than they would have done 50 years ago.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that in 2015 - the most recent data available the average man got married at 33, while women did so aged 31.
In comparison, 50 years ago men typically got married at the age of 25 - two years older than the average woman, who was married at 23. Even in 1975, the average of age of first-time marriages remained the same for both men and women. By 1985, men were getting married aged 26, compared with women aged 24. Ten years later in 1995 the figure had risen again, with single men and women getting married aged 29 and 27. In 2005, men were aged 32 and women 30 at the time of marriage. People may be getting married when they are older because of the declining influence of religion and the fact today’s society is less conservative about unmarried couples living together.
In fact, some 88 per cent of men and women who got married in 2015 had lived together before getting hitched.
Weddings can also be expensive - a recent survey found Brits spend an average of £27,161 on their big days so it may be preferable for couples to live together without the financial burden of marriage.
In total, some 245,513 marriages took place in 2015. It means the number of marriages has declined by a third from the 371,127 seen in 1965.
The most marriages ever recorded was in 1975, when some 426,241 were registered across England and Wales.
The fewest since the turn of the 20th century was the 232,443 marriages seen in 2009.
The figure has likely climbed in recent years because same-sex marriage became legal in 2014.
While same-sex couples could join together in a civil partnership prior to this, they have since been able to convert existing civil partnerships into a marriage if desired.
Meanwhile, the average age of people in same-sex relationships getting married is significantly greater than those in heterosexual relationships. On average, gay men get married at 41, while gay women marry at 37. In 2015, four lesbian women aged 80 and over who had not been previously married got hitched, as did one widow and one divorcee of around the same age. A further four single men aged 80 and over married, as did two men in the same age bracket who’d previously been divorced.