FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3124
You asked
Please supply spreadsheet data on marriages for each country England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland:
First time married Males For each age, 16-100 Number of years age gap difference to the Female For example, Males age 38 1 year age gap 2,000 females 2 year age gap 3,000 females 3 year age gap 3,500 females etc.
Second time married Males (same as above)
Where the male is younger, please provide this data as well, but mark this -# age difference.
Please provide separate data for same sex marriages, but use the older male or older female as the lead.
Please provide these data requests in 10 year groups going back to as far as your electronic records go back to.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry requesting marriage data for the United Kingdom.
We are responsible for the production of life event data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the marriage certificate at the point of registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Marriages in England and Wales
Marriage data is published two years in arrears. Details of civil marriage registrations come to us quite quickly as it's an electronic system. However, the recording of religious marriages is still paper-based and therefore they take longer to reach us. There are several stages involved: paper records from churches are sent to the local registration service; this information is then forwarded to the General Register Office, who manually key in details of each paper record; and then the data are sent to us. Delays can also be due to closure of churches and changes in the clergy. We wait 2 years to receive as many religious marriage registration records as possible to balance timeliness against completeness of the data.
We hold the following analysis Marriages in England and Wales, analysis is available from 2018 -- 2010, however marriage data is held within the dataset from 1837.
Same sex marriage data is available from 2014.
Table 3 provides analysis of the number of men marrying by age and previous marital status in England and Wales from 1846 to 2018.
Table 4 provides analysis of the number of women marrying by age and previous marital status in England and Wales from 1846 to 2018.
Information for marriages 2001 to 2018 and same sex marriages 2014 -- 2018 is also part of our explorable dataset available on our NOMIS webservice
- Select Data type in Search Bar:Marriages of opposite-sex couples in England and Wales by age group, marital status and ceremony type or Marriages of Same Sex Couples in England and Wales.
- Select the geography (England and Wales, regional or by local authority).
- Select Age Difference
- Select Age of Bride/Age of Older partner
- Select Age of Groom/Age of Younger Partner.
- Approved Premises -- Not available for Same Sex marriages
- Ceremony Type - Not available for Same Sex marriages
- Marital Status of Bride/Marital Status of Older Partner
- Marital Status of Groom/Marital Status of Younger Partner
- Sex -- Only available for Same Sex marriages data set.
- Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
Any further breakdowns would need to be created as bespoke analysis. Public authorities are not oblgiated to create information in response to requests. Therefore, we consider this to be information not held. However, information on marriages along with other special extracts and tabulations of life event data for England and Wales are available to order. These bespoke services are subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs. Such enquiries fall outside of the Freedom of Information regime and should be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.
Our next publication on marriages in England and Wales 2019 is due to be published in March/April 2022. The finalised release date will be published on our Release Calendar.