Lockdown and births outside marriage
New figures from the Office for National Statistics show that more than half of all births in England & Wales are now to unmarried parents for the very first time. In 2021, 51.3% of births were to unmarried parents compared to 49.0% in 2020. The context to this is the long term trend away from […]
Impact and Legacy
After nine years as research director for Marriage Foundation, I decided I needed to boost our impact and legacy. If you’ve followed our work in any detail, I hope you’ll agree we’ve produced some excellent, informative, robust and occasionally counterintuitive research. Much of this has been in collaboration with the technical expertise of Professors Steve […]
How ‘naked weddings’ could help reduce the ‘marriage gap’
According to our new survey of 2,000 young adults for Marriage Week 10-16 May 2021, nearly one in three 18-30s say they would be more likely to marry if costs weren’t so high. This affects the poorest most. The time is now for our campaign for cheaper stripped-back ‘naked’ weddings. According to something call Hitched, […]
The ‘burning injustice’ that the poor no longer marry
Harry and Meghan have just done it. His older brother did it a few years ago. Some of his cousins have done it. And his father has even done it twice. Indeed it would be considered quite odd if Prince Harry and Meghan Markle hadn’t got married. Royal weddings and marriages are a bit of a […]
Cabinet MPs’ constituents back marriage – so will it be in the Tory manifesto?
PRESS RELEASE FROM MARRIAGE FOUNDATION FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New Marriage Foundation data has shown that 25 out of 26 of the Cabinet MPs’ constituencies back marriage as the best family structure to raise children. In almost all of the constituencies represented by Theresa May’s Cabinet, the majority of constituents with dependent children have chosen […]
Throughout Europe, the rich marry and the poor don’t
Everyone knows that fewer people get married these days. This has become an increasingly serious problem for the simple reason that most couples who don’t marry don’t stay together whereas most couples who do marry do stay together. Among parents, roughly eight out of ten who are married when their child is born will still be […]
Scandinavian countries rank worst in Europe for marriage take-up among poorest
PRESS RELEASE FROM MARRIAGE FOUNDATION Date: 07 August 2016 Low income parents in Scandinavia are amongst the least likely in Europe to be married, according to new research by Marriage Foundation. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark have an average of under a third (30 per cent) of poor parents who are married, as compared to […]