New figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the proportion of people who have never been married or in a civil partnership but are cohabiting with a partner reached 9.5% in 2015, up from 6.8% in 2002. Once cohabitees who have previously been divorced or widowed are taken into account, the figure is 12.3%.

The proportion of the population that is married fell from 54.8% in 2002 to 50.6% in 2015.