Is teenage marriage really such a terrible idea?

Oh to be the parent of a teenager today. And before you roll your eyes and stop me right there to tell me tales of their grumpiness, unpredictability, recklessness and ability to make endless thoughtless decisions, with potentially disastrous consequences, consider this: at least you didn’t have one 20 years ago.

Think your son or daughter likes a drink? They’re virtually teetotal compared to millenial teens – only half of 18-24-year olds will have had a drink in the past week, compared with 78 per cent in the year 2000. The same goes for smoking, drug-taking and having unprotected sex. While young adults at the turn of the century were boozing their way into the new millenium (guilty as charged), today’s teens are more likely to be found in the gym than the pub. Small wonder they’ve been dubbed “Generation Sensible”.

It’s perhaps surprising, therefore, that the one thing they’re doing less of is getting married. In the year 2000, just under 4,000 people tied the knot aged 18. In 2015, the number had dropped to a mere 638.

There are, of course, multiple reasons why this might be so. Somewhere to live is a start: back in 2000, when the average house price was £80,365 and average annual pay £18,848, getting hitched could also be the chance to climb onto the housing ladder. In the interim, average pay may have risen to £27,271, but house prices have ballooned to £226,906, or eight times the average salary. Suddenly, joining forces doesn’t make such a difference. And anyway, you need to be earning a wage in the first place to make it work – and today’s 18-year olds are much more likely than their generational predecessors to still be in full-time education (and probably worrying about how to pay for that, let alone considering a mortgage).

Social mores have also loosened. It seems astonishing, but 18 years ago, same-sex couples couldn’t be civilly partnered, let alone get married. These days, marriage as a general trend is on the decline – any stigma around not being wed has all but disappeared. And teenage pregnancies – once a reason to put a ring on it – have also fallen off a cliff.

But might I suggest another reason? It is that getting married means taking a risk – something that “generation sensible” is loath to embrace.

Promising to spend the rest of your life with someone, for better or for worse, is a huge undertaking, especially when embarked upon young. We live in a society that simultaneously embraces the idea of “The One”, tells us that, if it doesn’t work out, we can just get divorced, but also doesn’t tolerate failure. Small wonder we’re confused.

But being married also brings huge benefits – and is proven to make you happier and healthier in the long run. Married people are less likely to suffer strokes, stress or heart attacks, while studies continue to show that marriage is good for mental health. Given that the emerging generation of young adults is also lonelier than before, spending more time at home and less time socialising, might it be time for a rethink?

Nobody is suggesting we should force our young people into getting married before they’re ready, or continue to peddle the lie that you’re not really complete unless you have FOLLOW Lucy Denyer on Twitter @lucydenyer;

at telegraph.co.uk/ opinion an “other half ”. But neither should we rejoice wholeheartedly in the decline of young marriage, or assume that entering into marriage later in life is automatically a good thing.

One of the most moving funerals I have ever attended was of a couple who had died, in their 90s, within days of each other – one of a heart attack, the oth other, basically, of grief. They had been ma married since their late teens, had gro grown up together, learnt to com communicate, compromise and live wit with each other in the secure embrace of t their relationship. The church was ful full of their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, celebrating a pai pair of lives so intertwined that even dea death could not part them. There was no history of failed relationships, no lon loneliness. I’m sure it was no bed of ros roses either. But they were an example of all the good things marriage can br bring, despite the attendant risks.

So parents of teenagers, be warned. Y Your children may be healthier and more sober than ever before. But if they bring home “the one” when they’re not yet 20, that’s not necessarily a reason to despair.