Marriage rates in the UK

There was a time when 50 out of every 1,000 women in the UK got married annually. Now, according to the Office for National Statistics, marriages are at the lowest rate ever. Despite an increase after rules on where you could get wed were liberalised, fewer people are getting married than at any time in more than 100 years.

A total of 232,990 couples tied the knot in 2008 - down from 235,370 in 2007 and the lowest total since 1895. Divorce rates released recently appeared to show that less people are getting divorced. So, what's going on?

The marriage rate is calculated by the number of marriages per head of unmarried (single, divorced or widowed) population. In 2008 there were 21.8 men marrying per 1,000 unmarried adult men, down from 22.4 in 2007, and 19.6 women marrying per 1,000 unmarried women over 16, down from 20.2 in 2007. Since 1981 the number of marriages conducted every year has fallen by a third. Resolution, a group of family lawyers, say the legal benefits of marriage should be extended to unmarried cohabiting couples. Vice chairman David Allison said:

"A smaller percentage of people got married in 2008 than in any year since records began and at the same time the number of couples living together outside of marriage is on the increase"

Well, you can get the overall data below. Let us know what you can do with it.

England and Wales marriage rates since 1862

Click heading to sort

Year	All marriages	Males marrying per 1,000 unmarried males	Females marrying per 1,000 unmarried females
SOURCE: ONS
1862	164,030	58.7	50
1863	173,510	61.4	52.3
1864	180,387	63	53.6
1865	185,474	64.3	54.7
1866	187,776	64.4	54.8
1867	179,154	60.8	51.7
1868	176,962	59.2	50.4
1869	176,970	58.8	50
1870	181,655	59.7	50.7
1871	190,112	61.8	52.5
1872	201,267	64.3	54.6
1873	205,615	64.9	55.2
1874	202,010	62.9	53.4
1875	201,212	61.8	52.5
1876	201,874	60.9	51.8
1877	194,352	58	49.3
1878	190,054	55.9	47.5
1879	182,082	52.8	44.9
1880	191,965	54.7	46.6
1881	197,290	55.6	47.3
1882	204,405	56.7	48.1
1883	206,384	56.4	47.8
1884	204,301	54.8	46.3
1885	197,745	52.4	44.2
1886	196,071	51.1	43.1
1887	200,518	51.5	43.3
1888	203,821	51.4	43.2
1889	213,865	53.2	44.7
1890	223,028	54.6	45.8
1891	226,526	54.6	45.7
1892	227,135	53.8	45
1893	218,689	51.1	42.7
1894	226,449	52	43.5
1895	228,204	51.6	43.2
1896	242,764	53.9	45.1
1897	249,145	54.5	45.6
1898	255,379	55	46
1899	262,334	55.6	46.5
1900	257,480	53.7	44.9
1901	259,400	53.3	44.6
1902	261,750	53.2	44.5
1903	261,103	52.5	43.9
1904	257,856	51.1	42.8
1905	260,742	51.3	42.9
1906	270,038	52.5	43.9
1907	276,421	53.2	44.5
1908	264,940	50.3	42.1
1909	260,544	49	41
1910	267,721	49.8	41.7
1911	274,943	50.8	42.5
1912	283,834	52.1	43.6
1913	286,583	52.2	43.7
1914	294,401	52.9	44.3
1915	360,885	64.9	53.8
1916	279,846	50.9	41.3
1917	258,855	47.7	37.9
1918	287,163	53.7	41.7
1919	369,411	69.6	53.5
1920	379,982	71.5	54.7
1921	320,852	60.4	45.8
1922	299,524	55.8	42.5
1923	292,408	53.9	41.1
1924	296,416	53.6	41.2
1925	295,689	53.3	40.9
1926	279,860	50	38.3
1927	308,370	54.8	41.9
1928	303,228	53.7	40.9
1929	313,316	55.2	41.9
1930	315,109	55.6	42
1931	311,847	53.4	41.6
1932	307,184	52.5	41
1933	318,191	54.6	42.6
1934	342,307	59.3	46.1
1935	349,536	59.8	46.6
1936	354,644	60.3	46.9
1937	359,160	60.6	47.4
1938	361,768	61.2	47.8
1939	439,694	74.4	58.3
1940	470,549	80.5	63.4
1941	388,921	68.5	53.2
1942	369,744	66.7	51
1943	296,432	54	40.9
1944	302,714	54.5	41.6
1945	397,626	72.1	54.7
1946	385,606	68.9	53.6
1947	401,210	73	56.6
1948	396,891	72	56.4
1949	375,041	68.6	53.7
1950	358,490	66.1	51.7
1951	360,624	69.2	52.1
1952	349,308	67.6	50.9
1953	344,998	67.2	50.5
1954	341,731	67	50.3
1955	357,918	70.8	53.1
1956	352,944	70.9	52.9
1957	346,903	70	52.3
1958	339,913	68.5	51.1
1959	340,126	68	50.8
1960	343,614	67.8	50.9
1961	346,678	67.1	50.9
1962	347,732	65.6	50.3
1963	351,329	65.5	50.3
1964	359,307	66.4	51.3
1965	371,127	68.3	52.8
1966	384,497	70.7	54.6
1967	386,052	71.2	54.8
1968	407,822	75.6	58.1
1969	396,746	73.7	56.7
1970	415,487	77.5	59.5
1971	404,737	75.1	57.7
1972	426,241	78.4	60.5
1973	400,435	72.9	56.5
1974	384,389	69	53.7
1975	380,620	67	52.4
1976	358,567	61.5	48.5
1977	356,954	59.6	47.3
1978	368,258	59.7	47.6
1979	368,853	58	46.6
1980	370,022	60.4	48.1
1981	351,973	55.7	44.7
1982	342,166	52.5	42.5
1983	344,334	51.2	41.8
1984	349,186	50.5	41.6
1985	346,389	48.7	40.5
1986	347,924	47.7	39.9
1987	351,761	47.1	39.6
1988	348,492	45.8	38.8
1989	346,697	44.8	38.1
1990	331,150	42.1	36.1
1991	306,756	39.3	33.2
1992	311,564	39.6	33.4
1993	299,197	37.7	31.8
1994	291,069	36.3	30.6
1995	283,012	34.7	29.3
1996	278,975	33.6	28.5
1997	272,536	32.3	27.5
1998	267,303	31.1	26.6
1999	263,515	30.1	25.8
2000	267,961	30.1	25.9
2001	249,227	27.4	23.7
2002	255,596	27.3	23.9
2003	270,109	28.2	24.8
2004	273,069	27.7	24.6
2005	247,805	24.5	21.9
2006	239,454	23.4	20.9
2007	235,370	22.4	20.2
2008	232,990	21.8	19.6