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Would you still be together if you hadn’t got married?

  • During their first ten years of marriage, one in three couples say they wouldn’t still be together had they not got married. One in four couples say they wouldn’t be as happy as they are now.
  • Just under half of couples married for the first time think they would still be together and as happy whether they had married or not. The remaining couples didn’t know.
  • Marriage Foundation commissioned Savanta ComRes to ask 2,000 ever married adults aged 30 and over what they thought would have happened had they remained unmarried.
  • The results show that a significant proportion of couples attribute their success to the fact they got married rather than remained unmarried.
  • We have long argued that the ingredients of success are necessarily present in the act of marriage – the deliberate decision, the clear plan that removes ambiguity, the social affirmation and accountability that motivates – but only optionally among cohabiting couples.
  • This adds to the body of evidence suggesting the act of marriage itself contributes to stability and satisfaction, rather than merely being due to the ‘kind of couples who marry’.
  • Results are weighted to reflect characteristics of the population of the UK.

Downloads

Here you can download the Research Briefing Paper as a PDF and the Press Release where it is available.

Download the Research Paper as a PDF
Download the Press Release

Media Links

Sunday Express – Getting married is the reason we have stuck together, couples tell survey

GB News – Interview with Harry about “Marriage Benefits”

Institute for Family Studies – Would you still be together if you hadn’t married?

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Registered charity number: 1150453

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