According to data taken from the the Family Resources Survey and the General Household Survey, whilst before the 1990s there was a trend away from marriage confined to low income households, this is now spreading to families on middle incomes.

In 2012, only 59% of middle income families with young children were getting married. This is a drop of 25% over 18 years as in 1994, 84% of middle earning families were still getting married.

Sir Paul Coleridge the Chairman and founder of Marriage Foundation stated:

“Only a tiny proportion of parents who do not marry make it, as a couple, to the child’s fifteenth birthday. The simple fact is that if you marry today you will probably still be married to the same person on the day you die. If you merely cohabit, by the time your child is 15, you almost certainly will not be living as a couple with them. […]”

To read the full article, please visit Family Law Week’s website.