OLD AGE WEDDINGS

The number of people aged 80 and over getting married is on the rise

MEDIA mogul Rupert Murdoch has announced that he is going to be getting married for the fifth time at the ripe old age of 92. If the News Corp owner were to tie the knot in this country he would be joining one of the few growth sectors in marriage - senior citizen nuptials.

There were a total of 219,850 marriages in England and Wales in 2019, the latest year for which figures are available.

That’s the fewest there has been since 1893.

The number of marriages peaked in 1972, when there were 426,241, but has largely been in decline ever since.

However, one age group in particular has been bucking that trend - the over 80s.

A total of 774 men aged 80 and over got married in opposite-sex partnerships in 2019.

That’s compared to 407 a decade earlier, and 375 two decades earlier.

Meanwhile, a total of 308 women aged 80 and over got married in 2019 compared to 138 a decade earlier, and 156 two decades earlier.

The average age for men to get married in England and Wales is now 34.3-years-old for opposite-sex weddings.

For women, the average is 32.3-years-old.

Those are both the highest averages on record.

The age at which people get married has been steadily climbing over the years.

Twenty years ago, the average age for a man to get married was 31.6-years-old.

For women it was 29.4-years-old. Thirty years ago it was 27.7-yearsold for men and 25.6-years-old for women, while fifty years ago it was 23.7-years-old for men and 21.8-years-old for women, more than a decade earlier than it is now.

When it comes to same-sex weddings, the numbers have remained steady since they were first introduced, though have declined slightly.

A total of 6,728 took place in 2019, which was down from 6,925 the year before.

That’s still higher than the 4,850 that took place in 2014, and the 6,493 that took place in 2015.

The over-80s are also represented in same-sex weddings as well.

A total of 11 men aged 80 or above were married in a same-sex partnership in 2019, as were three women.

The average age for men in samesex weddings is 38.1-years-old, and for women it’s 33.8-years-old.

Brighton and Hove had the highest number of same-sex weddings of any local authority with 157. That’s followed closely by Westminster with 155.

That’s followed by Cornwall and Isles of Scilly with 112, Islington with 98, Kensington and Chelsea with 85, Southwark with 83, then Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole with 74.