THE number of couples opting to tie the knot has dropped below half for the first time, new figures reveal.
Only 49.7 per cent in England and Wales were married or in a civil partnership in 2021.
Statistics show this fell further to 49.4 per cent in 2022 while a decade earlier, in 2012, it was 51.2 per cent, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed.
Couples choosing to live together but not get married or enter a civil partnership had topped a fifth by 2022.
The number jumped from 19.7 per cent in 2012 to 22.7 per cent — equivalent to 5.4million to 6.8million people.
Overall, 99.3 per cent of married people were wed to someone of the opposite sex, figures said.
More than six in 10 over-16s were living with a legal partner or cohabiting.
The ONS said the figures reflected an ageing married or civil partnered population.
The Marriage Foundation said the continued trend away from marriage was “bad news for couples and bad news for children”.
Spokesman Harry Benson said: “Marriage may not be a panacea but it stacks the odds in favour of stable families.”
David Thompson, family partner at law firm Seddons, said that, if anything, people were waiting longer to get married.
He said: “Despite the divorces and travails of famous people, most people — perhaps surprisingly — still want to marry.”
