Law firm reviews marriage trends
LAW firm Irwin Mitchell has highlighted a fall in both the number of marriages and divorces, as well as an increasingly high number of celebrity divorce cases, as part of its review into the social trends of the ‘noughties’.
Statistics show marriage became less and less popular throughout the decade, with the number of marriages falling by 14.2%.
There was also a considerable decline in the number of divorces, with the divorce rate down 10.9% by the end of the ten year period.
Kevin Harris-James, partner and Head of Family Law at Irwin Mitchell’s Midlands offices, said: “There’s been a massive shift in culture over the last decade, which has been underlined by a heavy decline in the number of people getting married. We’ve also seen the age at marriage increasing, as people look to settle down and have children later in life.
“Although the number of divorces has fallen in total, divorce was on the rise for the first half of the decade and the recent fall is probably may as much be down to the decline in the number of marriages as a cultural shift towards couples sticking together for longer and the number of couples who have separated but not divorced, possibly due to the impact of the recession in the latter years of the noughties.”
Another important social change was the introduction of civil partnerships in December 2005, which was brought in to give same-sex couples the equivalent legal rights to married couples.
Initially these proved very popular, with 1,953 partnerships in the last month of 2005 and 16,106 in 2006. Since then, however, the number of civil partnerships has fallen dramatically to around 7,000 new partnerships a year.
Mr Harris-James said this was not surprising as a stabilisation in the trend had been expected.
“There was a large take up of civil partnerships when they were first introduced. Civil partnerships were a hotly debated topic when they were first brought in, not least because of the increased publicity brought by the high profile civil partnership of Elton John and David Furnish in December 2005.
“There were also a large number of same-sex couples who had been waiting for legalised marriage for many years, which explains why the number of civil partnerships has now tailed off to a more stable rate following the original pent up demand,” he said.
The rise in celebrity culture in the ‘noughties’ also brought the mainstream popularisation of pre-nuptial agreements, he added.
A pre-nuptial agreement is a contract made between a couple prior to marriage, where they agree on conditions such as the division of property and financial support in the event of a future break up.
“More and more people are turning to pre-marital agreements to avoid the financial complications that arise should their relationship break down,” said Mr Harris-James.
While these are not legally binding in the UK, courts are increasingly considering them when reaching decisions about the division of marital assets at divorce.
“While it may not be the most romantic notion and couples may feel uncertain how such an arrangement may affect their relationship, it doesn’t have to take away from the commitment of marriage,” he added.
