Marriage

• The Office for National Statistics in 2007 suggest that marriage is good for the couples health as they live longer than single or divorced couples
• Murphy says bad relationships rather than divorce is what makes people unhappy and hence ill
• Since the 1970s,

  • Less people are getting married
  • More remarriages
  • Married later in life
  • Couples less likely to marry in Church
• The average age for first marriage of men is 35.3 but for women is 33
• There has been a 61% decrease in reported marriages between 2019 to 2020
• There has been a 36% increase in remarriages between 2019 to 2020
• A reason for the change in marriage patterns is due to a changing attitude of marriage, so there is less pressure and more freedom for a couples relationship and it is no longer defined by a legal status
• Secularisation means only 3% of young people with no religion get married compared to 17% of those with a religion
• Increasingly childbirth outside of marriage is less stigmatised so shotgun weddings are decreased. In 1989 70% of people thought that couples who want children should get married compared to only 42% in 2012
• Fewer people are likely to rush into marriage due to the fear of divorce~
• The changing position of women lead to less women getting married
• Wilkinson says marriage and family life have went under a gender quake, so young girls no longer prioritise marriage
• Additionally, the cost of marriage is high as of 2022 it is £18,400
• One of the reasons for less church weddings is the church's archaic view of same-sex marriage and refuse to remarry divorced people
• The reason people get married when they are older is because they have more money to spend on a luxurious wedding and people are more likely to cohabit before marriage
• There has been more remarriages because of the increase in divorce and there are more divorces so more people to marry