Download our briefing note on prenups here
Four years ago, we ran a survey of 2,000 ever married UK adults which included a question about prenuptial agreements or ‘prenups’, legal contracts that some couples sign before getting married to outline how assets, debts and other financial matters will be handled in the event of divorce. Despite lots of promotion from family lawyers who champion the perceived advantages of ‘prenups’, this was the first national survey to assess their prevalence.
Having been careful to distinguish our original question so that respondents did not conflate prenups with marriage preparation, we were surprised to find that as many as 20% of the couples who married since the year 2000 said they had signed one.
In a new survey of 2,000 young UK adults aged 18-35, commissioned by Marriage Foundation and conducted by the survey company Whitestone, we replicated this question with additional clarification about the nature of the contract.
Among the 599 married adults, 20% of the men and 16% of the women said they had signed one. This mirrors our original findings and confirms that about one in five of those who have married in recent years have signed a ‘prenup’. Among the 1,396 unmarried adults, 60% of the men and 58% of the women said they would consider signing one. Logistic regression analyses also showed that those who were in higher economic group ABC1 or religious were more likely to sign or consider signing a prenup.
One finding that we didn’t look at last time was who ruled out a prenup. Nearly twice as many of those married (42% of the men and 49% of the women) said they would not consider a prenup, compared to those who were not married (23% of the men and 27% of the women). The difference was most apparent among the non-religious, of whom 68% ruled it out if they were married but only 23% if they were not.
Our findings replicate and affirm our previous survey results with a new national sample of younger adults. Findings suggest that ‘prenups’ have become a serious consideration for more than half of couples and are an integral part of the wedding process for one in five.
Harry Benson, Research Director, November 2025