Marriage rate to decline

The number of people prepared to spend £20,000 on getting married is to fall over the next 25 years, according to statistics released yesterday.

The proportion of men who are married is expected to fall from 53% in 2003 to 42% by 2031, while the number of women who are married will decrease from 50% to 40%.

The number of men who have never married is projected to rise from 35% in 2003 to 46% in 2031, according to the Government Actuary's Department.

Divorce rates among the over 65s are expected to keep rising, while the number of divorced people aged between 45 and 65 will peak in 2016 and then start to tail off.

Cohabiting will become increasingly popular, with the number of cohabiting couples - estimated to be two million two years ago - expected to increase to 3.8 million over the next 25 years.

The marital status projections are based on official estimates by the Office for National Statistics.

Earlier this year, it appeared that marriage was making a comeback in England and Wales, according to ONS figures.

There were 267,700 marriages in 2003, up 4.7% on the previous year, and an increase of 7.4% on 2001's figures.