Fewer weddings in church: the decline of religious marriage in England and Wales

How many couples still marry in church?

Roughly one couple in six who marry in England and Wales now has a religious ceremony. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) bulletin on marriages in 2021 and 2022, released on 20 June 2024, reported 246,897 marriages in 2022, of which 17.0% were religious and 83.0% civil ^[1]. Applied to the total, the religious share corresponds to about 42,000 ceremonies, a figure calculated here from the two published numbers.

The ONS defines the two categories by venue and form. A civil marriage is held at a register office or at other buildings approved for civil marriage, after both partners have given formal notice to the superintendent registrar of their district ^[1]. A religious marriage is held in Church of England or Church in Wales premises, in other registered buildings certified as places of worship, or according to Quaker or Jewish rites ^[1].

Figures for 2023 exist but do not cover the split. The ONS bulletin of 18 November 2025 reported 231,949 marriages and civil partnerships in England and Wales in 2023, down 8.6% from 253,776 in 2022, and described itself as the first to publish final statistics for 2023 ^[12]. It did not report the religious and civil percentages in the content consulted, so 2022 remains the latest year for which this page can give the split. The next ONS release, covering 2024 and 2025, is listed provisionally for December 2026 to January 2027 ^[14].

The small numbers of religious weddings include marriages by Quakers and Jews, as well as Anglican, Catholic, other Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist ceremonies. The ONS bulletin does not provide a denominational breakdown for 2022 in the sections consulted ^[1], and the last detailed breakdown found for this page is for 2008 (see the section on faiths below).

Civil and religious marriages in England and Wales

Year	Civil	Religious	Note
1838	About 1%	99%	First published figures, mostly Church of England [3]
1976	Overtakes religious for the first time	-	Civil ceremonies have outnumbered religious ones every year since 1992 [2]
1992	50.4%	49.6%	311,564 marriages [1]
2008	67%	About one third (76,700 ceremonies)	Provisional ONS data via BRIN [3]
2013	72% (172,254)	28%	Religious ceremonies down 14% on 2012, civil down 6% [2]
2022	83.0%	17.0%, about 42,000 (calculated)	246,897 marriages in total [1]

When did civil ceremonies overtake religious ones?

Civil marriages first outnumbered religious ones in 1976 and have done so in every year since 1992. That is the ONS's own summary in its bulletin on marriages in 2013, which recorded 172,254 civil ceremonies, or 72%, and 28% religious ^[2]. The 1992 figure of 50.4% civil is the start of the unbroken run ^[1][2].

The starting point was very different. When national figures were first published in 1838, 99% of marriage ceremonies were religious, mostly Church of England ^[3]. Civil marriage was a new option at the time, introduced by the Marriage Act 1836, and it remained the minority route until 1976.

A major change in the 1990s was the arrival of approved premises. The Marriage Act 1994 enabled civil marriages to be solemnised on premises approved for the purpose by local authorities ^[10]. The ONS records that approved premises were introduced in 1995, and that by 2013, 86% of civil marriages took place in approved premises such as hotels, historic buildings and stately homes, and 14% in register offices ^[2]. Civil weddings therefore stopped meaning a short ceremony in a register office and became a way of getting married in a place of the couple's choosing.

Between 1998 and 2008 religious marriages fell by more than a quarter, twice the rate of the decline in total marriages, according to British Religion in Numbers, which was summarising an ONS bulletin published on 11 February 2010 ^[3]. In 2008, 67% of marriages were civil and about one-third were religious ^[3]. In 2013, religious ceremonies fell by 14% in a single year, compared with 6% for civil ones ^[2].

Why have religious weddings declined?

The decline in religious weddings follows the decline in religious affiliation, but it is not explained by it alone. In the 2021 census, 46.2% of people in England and Wales described themselves as Christian, down from 59.3% in 2011, and 37.2% reported no religion, up from 25.2% ^[11]. Christian was still the most common answer but fell below half of the population for the first time in a census of England and Wales ^[11]. Muslims were 6.5% of the population in 2021 and Hindus 1.7% ^[11].

Other trends compounded this. Couples now marry later and usually live together first, which reduces the pull of the church as the setting for the start of married life. In 2022, 83.7% of couples in religious ceremonies had already cohabited, against 91.3% for civil ones ^[1], as shown on the page about living together before marriage. A wedding is no longer the occasion on which a couple begin to share a home, so the religious meaning of the ceremony competes with other motives.

Practical factors also played a part. The 1994 Act and the spread of approved premises made venues such as hotels and country houses available for civil weddings ^[2][10]. Religious weddings, by contrast, have been tied to places of worship, and in the case of the Church of England to banns or a licence and a connection with the parish, under rules that the Law Commission says have failed to keep pace with modern life ^[5].

Religious bodies have noticed. The Church of England's Statistics for Mission 2024 recorded 21,600 marriages and services of prayer and dedication after civil marriage in 2024, compared with 31,700 in 2019, a fall of about 32% ^[4]. It noted that marriages in 2024 remained above the projected pre-pandemic trend, and that services of prayer and dedication after a civil marriage had grown from 6.3% of the total in 2019 to 8.4% in 2024 ^[4]. The rising share of services after a civil marriage points to some couples marrying civilly and then asking for a religious service, a pattern that the page on church weddings for cohabiting couples discusses in the pastoral context.

Which faiths still hold the most weddings?

The Church of England has long been by far the largest provider, although recent data are thin. In 2008, 76,700 religious ceremonies were held in England and Wales, and the Church of England accounted for 73% of them (about 56,000), the Roman Catholic Church for 11%, principal Free Churches for 8%, other Christian churches for 4% and other faiths for 3% ^[3]. The 2008 numbers for individual denominations are the percentages applied by BRIN to the total, and the approximate numbers are calculated from them ^[3].

The Church of England's own figure for 2024, 21,600, combines marriages with services of prayer and dedication after a civil marriage, which made up 8.4% of that total, and the report gives no separate count of marriages alone ^[4]. That combined figure cannot be set against the ONS total of about 42,000 religious weddings in 2022: the years differ, the Church's count includes services that are not weddings, and the ONS has not published a denominational breakdown in the bulletins consulted. No reliable estimate of the Church's current share of religious weddings can therefore be given here.

The faiths that take the smallest share are most affected by the registration issue. A religious marriage in a place that is not registered, or without an authorised person or registrar, may not be a legal marriage at all, as explained on the page about unregistered religious marriages. The 2026 weddings consultation notes that only 12.2% of Buddhist temples are registered for marriages ^[6].

Jewish and Quaker weddings follow special rules. They may follow their own usages without statutory requirements about the place, witnesses, prescribed words or open doors ^[6]. Anglican weddings need ordained clergy, two witnesses and a church or chapel unless a special licence applies ^[6]. Other religious weddings must take place in a registered place of worship ^[6].

How do Scotland's figures differ?

In Scotland, religious and belief weddings outnumber civil ones. National Records of Scotland reported 26,955 marriages in 2024, of which 12,381 (46%) were civil and 14,574 were religious or belief ceremonies ^[8]. Humanist weddings accounted for 8,142, the Church of Scotland for 1,252 and the Roman Catholic Church for 647 ^[8]. The humanist figure alone is larger than the Church of Scotland and Catholic figures combined by a factor of more than four, a calculation from these totals.

The comparison shows that the decline of religious weddings is not purely a story of secularisation. In Scotland, where bodies such as the Humanist Society can have celebrants authorised to conduct legally valid weddings, a very large part of non-civil weddings are non-religious. In England and Wales, humanists cannot currently conduct legally recognised marriages unless a registrar attends, so some couples hold a separate legal ceremony ^[9][6].

The High Court considered this in Harrison v Secretary of State for Justice, decided on 31 July 2020 (neutral citation 2020 EWHC 2096 (Admin)). Mrs Justice Eady accepted that the law gave rise to discrimination against humanist couples in the enjoyment of their Article 9 rights, but held it justified for the time being because wider reform was under review, and dismissed the claim ^[9]. The civil category in England and Wales therefore covers every wedding that is legally civil, whatever beliefs or traditions the couple bring to it, so the civil share cannot be read as a measure of non-belief.

Scottish figures also differ in the age at which people marry. The mean age at marriage in Scotland in 2024 was 37.8 for women and 40.0 for men ^[8], but this is a mean for all marriages including remarriages and not comparable with the English and Welsh median for first legal partnerships.

How could wedding law reform change the picture?

Reform would change how weddings are regulated, and possibly the statistics themselves. The Law Commission's final report of 19 July 2022 recommended shifting regulation from buildings to the officiant, widening venues, allowing religious ceremonies without prescribed words and outside places of worship, and permitting religious elements such as hymns and prayers in civil ceremonies as long as the ceremony remains identifiably civil ^[5]. Independent civil officiants and non-religious belief organisations could conduct weddings only if the government chooses to allow it ^[5].

The government responded on 2 October 2025 in a letter from Baroness Levitt. It accepted the move to an officiant-based system, promised a single set of rules for all weddings, and committed to ending the difference in treatment of humanists found in Harrison ^[7]. A consultation followed: Tying the Knot: Reforming weddings law in England and Wales ran from 16 July to 24 September 2026 ^[6]. It proposes universal rules for all weddings except Anglican ones, online notice followed by a compulsory in-person registrar interview, consent expressed through actions as well as words in religious and non-religious ceremonies, and legally binding weddings by non-religious belief organisations including Humanists ^[6].

If these ideas become law, the categories used by statisticians may need to change. A category defined by whether a ceremony takes place in a register office, approved premises or a place of worship would be difficult to maintain in a system defined by the officiant, and humanist weddings would join the legal count. The ONS would have to decide how to describe ceremonies that are neither civil in the old sense nor religious. At 30 October 2026, no government decision following the consultation had been found.

Frequently asked questions

Can you have a religious element in a civil ceremony?

Under the Law Commission's proposals, yes. Its 2022 report recommended allowing hymns, prayers and other religious elements in civil ceremonies, provided that the ceremony remains identifiably civil ^[5]. Its earlier consultation paper described the same idea ^[13]. Whether current rules permit this in a particular venue is a matter for the registration authority, and the sources consulted do not set out the current restriction in detail.

Are humanist weddings legal in England?

Not as legally binding ceremonies in themselves. Humanist ceremonies lack legal recognition unless state officials attend, whereas comparable religious ceremonies do not require that, a difference the High Court identified in July 2020 while holding it justified pending wider reform ^[9]. The government has committed to ending that difference, and its 2026 consultation proposes that non-religious belief organisations, including Humanists, could conduct legally binding weddings ^[6][7].

Is the Church of England still the largest provider of religious weddings?

Probably, but recent breakdowns are scarce. In 2008 it accounted for 73% of religious ceremonies ^[3]. In 2024 the Church recorded 21,600 marriages and services of prayer and dedication after civil marriage combined, and it does not publish a figure for marriages alone ^[4]. The ONS counted about 42,000 religious weddings of all kinds in 2022, but the years and definitions differ, so the two cannot be compared directly ^[1].

Are the figures different in Scotland?

Yes. In 2024, 46% of Scottish marriages were civil and 54% were religious or belief ceremonies, with 8,142 humanist weddings ^[8]. England and Wales had 83.0% civil weddings in 2022 ^[1]. The gap reflects who may conduct legally valid ceremonies as well as religious practice.

When did civil weddings first outnumber religious ones?

In 1976. The ONS says civil marriages first outnumbered religious ones in 1976 and have done so every year since 1992 ^[2]. The 1992 civil share was 50.4% ^[1].

Have church weddings recovered since the pandemic?

Only partly. The Church of England recorded 31,700 marriages and services of prayer and dedication after civil marriage combined in 2019, 23,800 in 2023 and 21,600 in 2024 ^[4]. The report says the number fell in both 2023 and 2024 but remained above the trend projected from before the pandemic ^[4].