"Figure 1b: Marriage rates for opposite-sex couples, 1935 to 2015","" "England and Wales","" "","" "Notes","1. The certificate of approval scheme under the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004 came into effect on 1 February 2005, to prevent the use of marriage to circumvent UK immigration control (“sham marriages”). This scheme was abolished on 9 May 2011. 2. The marriage rate shows the number of marriages per thousand unmarried men and women aged 16 and over. " "Unit","Rate: marriages per 1,000 unmarried men and women aged 16 and over" "","" "Year","Marriage rate for men","Marriage rate for women" "1935","59.8","46.6" "1936","60.3","46.9" "1937","60.6","47.4" "1938","61.2","47.8" "1939","74.4","58.3" "1940","80.5","63.4" "1941","68.5","53.2" "1942","66.7","51.0" "1943","54.0","40.9" "1944","54.5","41.6" "1945","72.1","54.7" "1946","68.9","53.6" "1947","73.0","56.6" "1948","72.0","56.4" "1949","68.6","53.7" "1950","66.1","51.7" "1951","69.2","52.1" "1952","67.6","50.9" "1953","67.2","50.5" "1954","67.0","50.3" "1955","70.8","53.1" "1956","70.9","52.9" "1957","70.0","52.3" "1958","68.5","51.1" "1959","68.0","50.8" "1960","67.8","50.9" "1961","67.1","50.9" "1962","65.6","50.3" "1963","65.5","50.3" "1964","66.4","51.3" "1965","68.3","52.8" "1966","70.7","54.6" "1967","71.2","54.8" "1968","75.6","58.1" "1969","73.7","56.7" "1970","77.5","59.5" "1971","80.3","60.5" "1972","84.0","63.5" "1973","78.2","59.4" "1974","74.0","56.5" "1975","71.8","55.2" "1976","66.0","51.2" "1977","63.9","49.8" "1978","64.0","50.2" "1979","62.2","49.2" "1980","60.4","48.1" "1981","55.7","44.7" "1982","52.5","42.5" "1983","51.2","41.8" "1984","50.5","41.6" "1985","48.7","40.5" "1986","48.1","39.8" "1987","47.1","39.6" "1988","45.8","38.8" "1989","44.8","38.1" "1990","42.1","36.1" "1991","39.3","33.2" "1992","39.6","33.4" "1993","37.7","31.8" "1994","36.3","30.6" "1995","34.7","29.4" "1996","33.6","28.5" "1997","32.3","27.5" "1998","31.1","26.6" "1999","30.1","25.8" "2000","30.1","25.9" "2001","27.4","23.7" "2002","28.8","25.1" "2003","29.8","26.2" "2004","29.4","26.0" "2005","26.4","23.3" "2006","24.9","22.0" "2007","24.0","21.4" "2008","23.5","21.0" "2009","22.8","20.5" "2010","23.6","21.3" "2011","23.4","21.3" "2012","24.6","22.5" "2013","22.5","20.4" "2014","23.0","20.9" "2015","21.7","19.8"