Average Marriage Duration Before Divorce Reaches Record High in UK

Couples in England and Wales are staying married for longer periods before divorcing, with the average length of a marriage ending in divorce reaching a record 13 years in 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This marks the longest duration since records began, an increase from a low of 8.9 years in 1985. Divorce lawyers have suggested that financial considerations play a significant role, with many couples finding they 'can't afford to get divorced and face the financial hand grenade that it results in.'

In 2025, there were 105,002 divorces in England and Wales, including 102,879 involving opposite-sex couples and 2,123 involving same-sex couples. These figures are lower than the peak divorce levels observed between the 1980s and 2000s, when annual divorces were around 150,000. The ONS noted that overall divorce rates have stabilized, with more recent marriages showing a lower likelihood of ending within the first decade compared to those from the 1980s and 1990s. The statistics agency attributed these shifts to a variety of factors, including legislative changes, alterations in the average age of marriage, and evolving societal views on divorce.

Amidst these trends, the Marriage Foundation think tank has urged the government to reconsider its proposed wedding bureaucracy reforms. Instead, the organization advocates for the adoption of French-style rules to potentially reduce ceremony costs and prevent religious groups from conducting marriages not recognized by British law. The think tank proposes a simplified, universal marriage system utilizing existing registrars. This approach, they argue, would separate state involvement in the legal act of marriage from the ceremony itself, potentially lowering the minimum cost of a marriage to £155.

Dr. Harry Benson, research director at Marriage Foundation, stated, 'The State has a legitimate interest in promoting and regulating the legal side of marriage, but it has no business at all in trying to regulate wedding ceremonies.' Currently, legal marriages must occur at approved venues. Labour's proposed reforms, under former deputy prime minister David Lammy, would shift the legal role to individual celebrants, allowing marriages to take place in more locations. Marriage Foundation contends this would create extensive bureaucracy for monitoring and regulating potentially thousands of officiants. The organization's alternative plan involves using existing registrars for all wedding ceremonies, leveraging established infrastructure and expertise. This would reduce the cost of a legal wedding to £155, or £167.50 with a marriage certificate, a system similar to those in France, Germany, and Switzerland. The report suggests that under this model, couples would undergo a standardized civil registration process, including checks for identity, eligibility, consent, and safeguarding, with the marriage subsequently registered by the existing civil registration service. Couples would then be free to hold their personal, religious, humanist, or cultural celebrations as they wished.

Labour's consultation on these marriage reforms, titled 'Tying the Knot: Reforming wedding laws in England and Wales,' was set to close on Thursday. Any legislative changes would likely not come into effect until the following year.