Marrying later: what rising marriage ages mean for British couples

How old are people when they first marry?

People in England and Wales who marry for the first time are now typically in their early thirties. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported in its bulletin on marriages in 2021 and 2022, released on 20 June 2024, that the median age at first legal partnership in 2022 was 32.7 for men and 31.2 for women in opposite-sex couples, the highest medians on record ^[1]. For same-sex couples the medians were 36.2 for men and 32.6 for women ^[1].

The ONS uses the expression first legal partnership because it counts both marriages and civil partnerships as partnerships and applies the age to the first one a person enters. A median is the age that half of the group are older than and half younger, so it is less affected by the small number of people who marry very late in life than a mean would be.

Marriages in 2022 were mostly the first for the people involved. Among opposite-sex couples, 77.4% of men and 78.7% of women who married had never been married before, up from 71.9% and 72.4% in 1992 ^[1]. Of 246,897 marriages in 2022, 239,097 were between opposite-sex partners and 7,800 between same-sex partners ^[1]. The number of marriages was 12.3% higher than in 2019, when there were 219,850, but 20.8% below the 311,564 of 1992 ^[1].

Later data use a different measure. The ONS bulletin of 18 November 2025, which published final figures for 2023, reported a median age at marriage of 34.8 for men and 33.0 for women in opposite-sex marriages ^[2]. These medians apply to all opposite-sex marriages, including remarriages, not only first ones, so they are not comparable with the 2022 first-partnership medians and should not be read as a further rise in the age at first marriage ^[2]. The ONS lists its next release, covering 2024 and 2025, provisionally for December 2026 to January 2027 ^[13].

Age at marriage and marriage rates, England and Wales

Measure	Men	Women	Source
Median age at first legal partnership, opposite-sex couples, 2022	32.7	31.2	ONS [1]
Median age at first legal partnership, same-sex couples, 2022	36.2	32.6	ONS [1]
Median age at marriage, all opposite-sex marriages including remarriages, 2023	34.8	33.0	ONS [2]
Marriage rate per 1,000 unmarried adults, opposite-sex, 2022	20.3	18.3	ONS [1][2]
Marriage rate per 1,000 unmarried adults, opposite-sex, 2023	18.1	16.4	ONS [2]
Opposite-sex marriages in which the person had never married before, 2022	77.4%	78.7%	ONS [1]
Mean age at first marriage, 1970	23 (not split by sex)	-	UK Parliament publication [4]
Mean age at marriage, all opposite-sex marriages, 2015	37.5	35.1	ONS [3]

How has the marriage age changed since the 1970s?

The age at first marriage has risen by about a decade since 1970, on loosely comparable measures. A UK Parliament research publication in its Olympic Britain series gave the mean age at first marriage as 23 in 1970, a twentieth-century low, and 31 at the time of writing ^[4]. The page consulted is undated and gives no author, so the second figure is approximate, but it fits the ONS medians for 2022 of 32.7 for men and 31.2 for women, which are measures of a slightly different kind ^[1][4].

Marriage itself became rarer. The ONS records that marriages in England and Wales peaked in 1972 with over 400,000 weddings and numbered 240,854 in 2013, a fall of roughly two-fifths over four decades ^[5]. The Parliament publication gives 415,000 in 1970 and 241,000 in 2010 ^[4].

The rates confirm this. In its final release for 2015, published on 28 February 2018, the ONS reported marriage rates of 21.7 per 1,000 unmarried men and 19.8 per 1,000 unmarried women, the lowest on record at that time, after a gradual decline from 1972 to 2009 ^[3]. In 2022 the opposite-sex rates were 20.3 for men and 18.3 for women ^[1][2], and in 2023 they fell by about a tenth to 18.1 and 16.4 ^[2].

Generational data show how many people never marry, or marry late. According to the Parliament publication, almost 90% of men born in 1908 and 1948 had married by the age of 40, compared with 78% of those born in 1960 and 63% of those born in 1970 ^[4]. The page does not say how many of the 1970 cohort married later. For 2015 the ONS put the mean age at marriage, including remarriages, at 37.5 for men and 35.1 for women, up from 37.0 and 34.6 in 2014, and said the average age had risen since the 1970s ^[3].

Why are couples marrying later?

The most firmly documented change is that marriage no longer marks the start of living together. In 2022, about nine in ten opposite-sex couples who married had cohabited first, and the share was 83.7% for religious ceremonies and 91.3% for civil ones ^[1]. The page on living together before marriage sets out that history, in which the share was 59.6% in 1994.

Researchers at the University of Southampton found that partnerships now almost always start as cohabitations: 77% did, and the median age at first cohabitation rose only from 21 to 22 for women and from 23 to 25 for men between 1980 and 2009 ^[9]. People therefore begin living with partners in their early to mid-twenties, but marry much later, if at all. Comparing the 2009 start ages with the 2022 marriage ages suggests a gap of roughly seven to nine years, a rough calculation across different years.

The same study found that cohabiting couples have become less likely to marry quickly. Of first cohabiting unions formed in the 1980s, 53% had become marriages within five years, but for unions formed in the 2000s the figure was 36%, and the share that had ended in separation within five years rose from 19% to 35% ^[9]. The authors attribute the decline in marriage chiefly to more couples breaking up, and describe cohabitation as increasingly a way of testing the relationship ^[9].

Other explanations, such as longer education, housing costs and changing views of marriage, are often put forward, but the sources consulted for this page do not measure them. What the data do show is that attitudes shifted at the same time. Surveys of British attitudes show a sharp decline in the view that marriage should come before parenthood. A claim that one cause explains the whole shift should be treated with caution.

How does later marriage relate to cohabitation?

Later marriage and cohabitation are two sides of the same change in the order of life events. At the 2021 census, 24.3% of people in a couple in England and Wales were cohabiting, up from 20.6% in 2011, and the sharpest rise was among people aged 25 to 29, where the share rose from 56.5% to 71.6% ^[10]. A person in that age group who is in a couple is now more likely to be cohabiting than married.

Cohabitation fills the years between the start of a relationship and the wedding. The Southampton study found that 13% to 14% of first cohabiting unions were still cohabitations after ten years, which shows that a minority remain unmarried for long periods ^[9].

The effect on statistics is that the marriage age is no longer a good measure of when couples form. A rising median age at first marriage can coexist with a stable or falling age at first partnership. Anyone using marriage data to study family formation needs to combine them with cohabitation figures such as those on the page about cohabitation statistics in the UK.

Do same-sex couples marry at different ages?

Same-sex couples tend to marry later, especially men. In 2022 the median age at first legal partnership was 36.2 for male couples and 32.6 for female couples, against 32.7 and 31.2 for men and women in opposite-sex couples ^[1]. In 2023 the median ages for all same-sex marriages were 37.4 for men and 34.0 for women ^[2].

Same-sex marriage has been possible in England and Wales only since 29 March 2014 ^[1]. Many couples who married in 2022 had been together for years, which is one plausible reason for the higher ages, though the ONS does not say so. The figure is also affected by the fact that a high proportion of same-sex marriages involve a person's first legal partnership: 89.0% of men and 81.0% of women marrying a same-sex partner had never married or formed a legal partnership before ^[1].

In 2022 there were 7,800 same-sex marriages, 3.2% of all marriages and a record, and 62.8% of them were between women ^[1]. In the same year female same-sex couples had the highest marriage rate on record, at 0.8 per 1,000 unmarried women, against 0.5 per 1,000 unmarried men for male couples ^[1].

What is the legal minimum age to marry?

The legal minimum age is 18 in England and Wales and 16 in Scotland and Northern Ireland, though Northern Ireland has a bill before its Assembly to raise it. In England and Wales, the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 raised the age to 18, and it took effect on 27 February 2023 under SI 2023/88 ^[7][14]. The Act also created an offence connected with marriages involving under-18s ^[7].

Scotland keeps a minimum age of 16. Section 1 of the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977 provides that no person domiciled in Scotland may marry before reaching 16, and that a marriage held in Scotland is void if either party is under 16 ^[8]. The sources consulted for this page do not describe whether other conditions apply.

Northern Ireland allows people aged 16 and 17 to marry or form a civil partnership with parental or equivalent consent ^[11]. The Minister of Finance, John O'Dowd, announced on 19 March 2026 that the Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill had been introduced to raise the minimum age to 18 and to make it an offence to arrange a marriage involving someone under 18 ^[11]. The Assembly's page records the first stage on 16 March 2026 and the completion of second stage on 20 April 2026, with the bill at committee stage ^[12]. Its final outcome had not been confirmed by 30 October 2026, and the Assembly page consulted shows no stage beyond committee.

The minister said that 183 marriages involving at least one partner under 18 took place from 2020 to 2024, and 13 in 2025 on a provisional basis ^[11]. The related rules on sexual consent are separate, with an age of consent of 16 across the UK, as explained on the page about the age of consent in UK law.

Frequently asked questions

Is the marriage age higher in Scotland?

Scotland's published average is higher, but it is not comparable. National Records of Scotland reported a mean age at marriage of 37.8 for women and 40.0 for men in 2024, among 26,955 marriages ^[6]. Those means include remarriages and are not the same as the English and Welsh medians for first partnerships, which were 31.2 and 32.7 in 2022 ^[1].

Are the age gaps between spouses narrowing?

Not among married couples. At the 2021 census, 31.1% of married couples in England and Wales had an age gap of five years or more, almost the same as 31.0% in 2011 ^[10]. The share fell among cohabiting couples, from 38.5% to 33.7% ^[10].

How many marriages are first marriages?

Most of them. In 2022, 77.4% of men and 78.7% of women in opposite-sex marriages had never married before ^[1]. In 2015, 67% of opposite-sex marriages were first marriages for both partners, unchanged since 2012 and up from a low of 58% in 2000 ^[3].

What is the legal minimum age to marry in England?

It is 18. The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 raised the age from 16, with effect from 27 February 2023 ^[7][14], and the ONS now measures the unmarried population as people aged 18 and over ^[1]. Scotland remains at 16 ^[8].

What is the difference between the mean and the median age at marriage?

The mean is the arithmetic average, while the median is the middle value. The ONS reported means in 2015 (37.5 for men, 35.1 for women, for all marriages including remarriages) and medians for first partnerships in 2022 (32.7 and 31.2) ^[1][3]. Because the groups and the measures differ, the two sets of figures cannot be compared directly.

Are marriage rates still falling?

They fell between 2022 and 2023. Opposite-sex rates were 20.3 per 1,000 unmarried men and 18.3 per 1,000 unmarried women in 2022, and 18.1 and 16.4 in 2023 ^[1][2]. Figures for 2024 and 2025 are due from the ONS around the turn of 2026-27 ^[13].