The estimates by marital status and living arrangements cover England and Wales for 2021 and 2022.
The proportion of people aged 16 or older in England and Wales who are married or in a civil partnership has fallen below 50% for the first time.
The figure dropped to 49.4% in 2022, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This was down from 49.7% in 2021 and a reduction from 51.2% a decade earlier in 2012.
Married or civil partnered remained the most common legal partnership status among the population aged 16 years and over in England and Wales, however this proportion has decreased over the decade from 51.2% in 2012 to 49.7% in 2021 and 49.4% in 2022. pic.twitter.com/vYDkBjVxni
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) January 25, 2024
The previous release on population estimates by marital status and living arrangements across the two nations covered estimates for 2020, so Thursday’s release is the first showing figures for 2021 and last year.
Couples living together but not in a marriage or civil partnership rose to more than a fifth – from 19.7% in 2012 to 22.7% in 2022, equivalent to 5.4 million people in 2012 and 6.8 million people in 2022.
While people in civil partnerships still account for a small proportion of those in a legal partnership, estimates for civil partnerships have almost doubled over the last decade, from 120,000 in 2012 to 222,000 in 2022, the ONS said.
This period covers the introduction of opposite-sex civil partnerships from the end of 2019.
Same-sex marriages have increased, with the estimated number of people in these marriages at 167,000 in 2022, up from 26,000 in 2015.
Of these, males accounted for around six in 10 (61.2%), while females accounted for around 4 in 10 (38.8%).
Overall, 99.3% of married people were married to someone of the opposite sex.
More than six in 10 (61.3%) of the population aged 16 and over were either living with a legal partner or cohabiting.
Just over a quarter (27.6%) of 16 to 29-year-olds lived in a couple in 2022 compared with more than three quarters (78.0%) of 40 to 44-year-olds.
People aged 70 years and over accounted for almost a fifth (18.3%) of the population who were married or in a civil partnership in 2022 – up from 15.1% in 2012.
Those aged under 30 accounted for 3.2%, down from 4.9% in 2012.
The ONS said the figures reflect an ageing married or civil partnered population over the past decade.
