By IRNA
London : Marriage rates in England and Wales have fallen to the lowest level since records began back in 1862, according to new figures released Wednesday.
The Office for National Statistics reported that provisional marriage figures for 2006 show that 23 out of 1,000 unmarried men were choosing to marry, down from 25 per 1,000 the previous year.
The marriage rate for women also fell from 22 to 21 per thousand.
The popularity of marriages has been in steep decline falling from rates of over 50 per 1,000 for men and 40 per 1,000 for women in the past 25 years.
Civil ceremonies, representing 66 per cent of all weddings, fell by 3 per cent from 162,169 in 2005 to 157,490 in 2006. Religious ceremonies also declined, falling by 7 per cent to 79,490 compared with 2005.
The figures showed that marriages that were the first for both parties in 2006 accounted for 61 per cent of all weddings, while remarriages for both parties accounted for 18 per cent, both similar to 2005.
In 2006, the mean age for all marriages increased to 36.4 years for men – up from 36.2 years in 2005, and 33.7 years for women – up from 33.5 years in 2005).
Despite the overall decline, the number of ceremonies taking place in approved premises like hotels and stately homes has continued to increase to just over 95,300, accounting for 40 per cent of all marriages, up from only 5 per cent in 1996.