Law and marriage
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To mark National Marriage Week 2025, matrimonial partner Linda Pope reflects on the evolution of marriage and the law.
When my parents (see picture) married in 1966, there were 384,497 weddings that year. Fast forward to 2022, and there were 246,897 marriages in England and Wales, including 7,800 same-sex marriages.
In 1966, marriage was exclusively between a man and a woman. This changed with the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, which allowed the first same-sex marriages in March 2014.
The average age at which couples marry has been rising since the 1970s. In 1972, men typically married at 27.4 years and women at 24.7 years. By 2019, these ages had increased to 39.7 for men and 37.3 for women.
The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022, effective from February 2023, now prohibits 16 and 17-year-olds from marrying or entering into civil partnerships, even with parental consent.
Today, about 70% of couples live together before marriage. The proportion of individuals in cohabiting relationships increased from 20.6% in 2011 to 24.3% in 2021.
The median duration of marriages ending in divorce is 12.9 years for opposite-sex couples and 7.5 and 6.3 years for male and female same-sex couples, respectively. The world’s longest marriage record is held by Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher, who were married for 86 years, 9 months, and 16 days. My parents were married for over 55 years.
For advice on marriage, civil partnership, separation or divorce, please contact Linda Pope.
The contents of this article are for the purposes of general awareness only. They do not purport to constitute legal or professional advice. The law may have changed since this article was published. Readers should not act on the basis of the information included and should take appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.
The contents of this article are for the purposes of general awareness only. They do not purport to constitute legal or professional advice. The law may have changed since this article was published. Readers should not act on the basis of the information included and should take appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.
