Just over half of all Gen Z men and women will ever marry, according to our new analysis of marriage data from the Office for National Statistics.
On present trends, 58 percent of Gen Z women and 56 percent of Gen Z men (born 1997 onwards) will ever marry, compared to 56-67 percent of millennials (born 1981-1996), 62-82 percent of Gen X (born 1965-1980), and 77-96 percent of boomers (born 1946-1964).
Marriage rates have especially collapsed among those aged 25 and under. Whereas 60 percent of women and 41 percent of men born in 1960 married before they were 25 years old, today just 4 percent of women and 2 percent of men born in 1998 have done so.
The effect of lockdown on marriages has yet to run its full course. We have previously identified that weddings in 2021 and 2022 have not yet made up for the cancellations and postponements forced by our draconian restrictions. Fully 115,000 weddings, equivalent to half a year, have simply disappeared.
This drop can be seen in the recent dips in the charts above. The biggest drop has been among those aged 30, whose marriage rate is 16 percent lower than it should have been. It’s possible these young adults will marry later, perhaps having decided to save the money for now.
This is a tragedy. There is a great deal of evidence that making decisions and acting upon them – as in the act of marriage – changes the way people see one another for the better.
Fewer marriages means more family breakdown. We already have the highest level of breakdown in UK recorded history. Nearly half of all children are not living with both natural parents. It’s no coincidence that that this matches the trend away from marriage.