New births data for 2021 from the Office for National Statistics showed a sharp fall in births within marriage to below 50% for the first time. Here’s our response:  

Harry Benson, research director of Marriage Foundation, commented: “Births outside of marriage have been hovering just below 50 per cent for the past decade. A sharp increase above 50 per cent in 2021 is almost certainly a knock-on effect of the ban and restrictions on marriage during lockdown in the previous year. These new data show that the share of births within marriage have fallen between 5% and 8% across all socio-economic groups. So this is a phenomenon that has affected everyone. In typical years, as many as one in six marriages take place either just before or just after their baby is born. Many of these couples will have been forced to delay their wedding. Although the overall trend remains down, we should expect to see some sort of rebound in births within marriage in 2022.”

Mr Benson continued: “We also hope these findings will act as a wakeup call to the Government and MPs. All the main party leaders say they support marriage and stable relationships, yet the current support on offer to couples, both before and after getting married is almost non-existent. The UK’s tax system continues to offer little help to married couples and the benefits system actually financially rewards those living apart. This must be reversed!”

Mr Benson concluded: “It’s been a decade since we’ve heard a cabinet minister publicly support marriage, despite most of them embracing it with open arms in their private lives. The Government must use the budget to send a clear message that marriage matters, both by breaking their embarrassing silence and addressing the perverse disgraceful ‘couple penalty’ in the benefits system.”

19 January 2023