Data from the Office of National Statistics and JustSingles.com has found that attitudes towards marriage in the UK are changing.
Census data shows that over the past 10 years less people got married, and those who did, were doing so at a later age.
In 2011, 35% of adults in England and Wales had never been married, which had risen from 30% in 2001 – a total of 3.2m more singles.
The number of those not married also rose from 19.4m in 2001, to 23m in 2011.
JustSingles.com compared this ONS census data with its own database and found that 30% of their 50,000 members classify themselves as “divorced”, whereas 70% describe themselves as “single”.
And the number of over-40s on their network had risen by 154% since the census in 2011.
Richard Gale, Commercial Development Director at JustSingles.com, said:
“This data doesn’t come as a surprise to us.
“Over the last decade, we’ve seen attitudes to relationships in the UK become increasingly progressive.
“There are now in excess of 14,000 niche online dating sites in the UK alone, and the growing popularity of these services has undoubtedly gone a long way in nurturing the acceptability of non-traditional relationships.”
The ONS also found that the median age of the adult population who had never been married was 27.5, a rise from 26.9 in 2001.
See an interactive ONS map of UK singles below: