Society in the United Kingdom
Marriage, cohabitation and births outside marriage: what official statistics and public debates show.
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How many unmarried couples live together in the UK?
According to the ONS, there were 3.5 million cohabiting couple families in the UK in 2024, or 17.7% of all families, up from 3.1 million (16.4%) in 2014. Married couple families still made up 65.1% of families, but their share has slowly fallen. The House of Commons Library counts about 1.5 million cohabiting couples in 1996.
View the topic →More than half of babies in England and Wales are born outside marriage
In 2022, 51.4% of births in England and Wales were registered outside marriage or civil partnership, according to the ONS. Most of these were not to lone mothers: 69.3% were joint registrations by parents living at the same address. Attitudes moved in step, with British Social Attitudes recording a sharp fall in support for marrying before having children.
View the topic →Living together first: how cohabitation became the path to marriage
Yes. ONS data show that more than nine in ten couples who married in England and Wales in 2021 or 2022 had lived together first. Among opposite-sex couples the share was about 90% in 2022, up from 59.6% in 1994. Even for religious ceremonies it reached 83.7%, against 91.3% for civil ceremonies.
View the topic →How British attitudes to sex before marriage have changed
Surveys show traditional views have weakened sharply. In British Social Attitudes, run since 1983, the share saying people who want children ought to marry fell from 70% in 1989 to 42% in 2012. The Natsal surveys, run since 1990–91, track sexual behaviour and attitudes over the same period.
View the topic →Natsal: how Britain measures its sexual attitudes and lifestyles
Natsal, the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, is one of the largest studies of sexual behaviour in the world. Natsal-1 interviewed 18,876 people aged 16 to 59 in 1990–91, and Natsal-3 surveyed 15,162 adults aged 16 to 74 in 2010–12. It is led by UCL, LSHTM, Glasgow and partners, with Natsal-4 results due in late 2026.
View the topic →What English schools must teach about marriage, cohabitation and sex
Since the Children and Social Work Act 2017, relationships education is compulsory in English primary schools and relationships and sex education in secondary schools. Revised statutory guidance in force from 1 September 2026 requires pupils to learn about the legal status of marriage and that 'common-law marriage' is a myth. Parents may request withdrawal from sex education.
View the topic →Married in the eyes of faith, not of the law: unregistered religious marriages
Often not. A religious ceremony that does not meet the legal formalities may leave a couple unmarried in law, without the financial protections of divorce. The 2018 independent review chaired by Mona Siddiqui proposed requiring civil registration alongside Islamic marriages. In July 2022 the Law Commission recommended wider reform of wedding law; the government responded in October 2025.
View the topic →Why teenage pregnancies have fallen so sharply in England and Wales
Yes. In England and Wales the under-18 conception rate fell to 13.2 per 1,000 women in 2021, less than half the 2011 rate of 30.9, according to the ONS. The under-16 rate dropped from 6.1 to 2.1 per 1,000. The ONS notes that the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy launched in 1999 and later initiatives may have contributed.
View the topic →Fewer weddings in church: the decline of religious marriage in England and Wales
In 2022 only 17.0% of marriages in England and Wales were religious ceremonies and 83.0% were civil, according to the ONS. In 1992 civil ceremonies made up 50.4%. There were 246,897 marriages in 2022. The Law Commission has proposed reforms that would allow more flexible religious and civil ceremonies.
View the topic →Marrying later: what rising marriage ages mean for British couples
In 2022 the median age at first legal partnership in England and Wales was 32.7 for men and 31.2 for women in opposite-sex couples, according to the ONS. Marriage rates have fallen since the early 1970s, to 20.3 per 1,000 unmarried men and 18.3 per 1,000 unmarried women in 2022. Most couples now live together first.
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