Marriage has slumped to its lowest level since records were first kept more than 150 years ago, official figures have revealed.
The proportion of couples tying the knot has fallen back into line with its declining long-term trend following a clampdown on sham weddings.
The popularity of marriage has been waning since 1973, but in recent years it has been artificially boosted by such bogus unions. In London alone, new rules which make it harder to use marriage to win the right to stay in Britain cut the number of ceremonies by more than a third.
But the report from the Office for National Statistics said the crackdown was responsible for only some of the steep decline.
It said the long-term fall in the popularity of marriage was continuing, with millions of couples choosing instead to live together and delay having a family. The figures, which cover 2005, the same year the new rules were brought in, show the number of weddings in England and Wales dropped by more than 28,000, from 273,070 to 244,710.
The fall brought the marriage rate, the number of people marrying compared to the population as a whole, to its lowest level since records were first kept.
The figures show that 12 people married in 2005 for every 1,000 unmarried individuals. That compares with a figure of 27 in 1851.
The proportion of married people among the adult population is now only a fraction over a half, at 50.3 per cent.
This figure compares with 54 per cent in 1997 and more than two thirds in the 1970s.
Wow! The Brits are fast learners of the truth that if marriage can mean anything, it ultimately means nothing. (Making marriage meaningless is a goal of gay activists.)
Unfortunately the Dutch have also learned this the hard way.
Read the whole article.
