The ceremonies landscape has changed considerably over the last few years, with two of the biggest changes over the last couple of decades being the introduction civil partnerships and same-sex marriages.
With ceremony season now in full swing (June being among the busiest months according to Statista), this month on the Stopford blog we wanted to explore the statistics behind civil partnerships in the UK and the impact same-sex marriages have had on the ceremony type.
*Statistics were taken from the 24th February 2023 copy of the statistics provided by the ONS.
Civil Partnership Statistics
Civil partnerships have been available to same-sex couples since the passing of the Civil Partnership Act 2005.
As detailed in the graph below, civil partnerships boomed in their first few years being offered, peaking with over 16,000 in 2006. This broke down into the following:
- England: 14,383
- Wales: 560
- Scotland: 1,047
- Northern Ireland: 116
This declined in the years proceeding, averaging 6,953 civil partnerships a year between 2007 and 2013. This was over a 50% decrease from 2006 in total UK civil partnerships conducted.
2014 saw a further 64% decrease in civil partnerships, coinciding with the introduction of same-sex marriage that year.
Since the introduction of same-sex marriages, the UK total number of civil partnerships per year has hovered consistently just above 1,000 per year (2015-2021).
Conclusion: The overall effect of same-sex marriages has been significant on civil partnership volumes, dropping volumes to a consistent low since their introduction.
As shown in our Same-Sex Marriage Statistics section, we’ll show that numbers have moved fairly comfortably across from civil partnership.
Additional Data Points:
- As noted in the below section, female same-sex marriages have outnumbered male same-sex marriages consistently. Male civil partnerships however have been regularly higher than female civil partnerships barring a few years (2010; 2012; 2013).
Same-Sex Marriage Statistics
Same-sex marriage was first introduced in the Marriage (same sex couples) Act 2013, coming into action in March 2014.
To best indicate the popularity of same-sex marriage in different countries within the UK, we’ve broken the proportion of marriages completed into sub-sections.
Please note the above does not include England and Wales statistics for beyond 2019 as these haven’t been reported as of yet.
England
Since 2014, England based registrars have conducted 36,879 same-sex marriages. On average, same-sex marriages in England are greater than 6,000 per year.
Over the years in the dataset, the volume of same-sex marriages have stayed stable throughout.
Additional Data Points:
- The highest number of same-sex marriages were conducted in 2016 (6,647)
- The highest number of male same-sex marriages occurred in 2016 (2,972)
- The highest number of female same-sex marriages occurred in 2018 (3,722)
- Throughout the dataset, female same-sex couples have had more ceremonies conducted
Wales
Welsh registrars have conducted 2,068 same-sex marriages since the Marriage (same sex couples) Act 2013 came into effect.
Although noticeably lower than both England and Scotland, the volume of ceremonies is also remaining stable.
It should be noted that the average volume of same-sex marriages in Wales is greater than that of civil partnerships throughout it’s entire history pre same-sex legislation (345 to 277).
Additional Data Points:
- The highest number of same-sex marriages were conducted in 2019 (397)
- The highest number of male same-sex marriages occurred in 2018 (138)
- The highest number of female same-sex marriages occurred in 2019 (265)
- Much like their English and Scottish counterparts, female same-sex couples have had more ceremonies conducted overall
Scotland
Inclusive of statistics for both 2020 and 2021, over 7,151 same-sex marriages have been conducted in Scotland.
Acting as an indicator of how English and Welsh statistics should respond as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when their respective statistics are released, Scotland saw a 55% drop between 2019-2020.
This saw a rebound to just below the 900+ marriages experienced between 2016-2019 to 819 in 2021.
Additional Data Points:
- The highest number of same-sex marriages were conducted in 2015 (1,671)
- The highest number of male same-sex marriages occurred in 2015 (696)
- The highest number of female same-sex marriages occurred in 2015 (975)
- Much like their English and Welsh counterparts, female same-sex couples have had more ceremonies conducted overall
Northern Ireland
As same-sex marriages only began in 2020, we’ve omitted the data for this study. We hope to update this in years to come.
Make booking easier for same-sex marriages and civil partnerships
Stopford deliver market-leading online booking solutions for over half of all registration services in England and Wales. Alongside comprehensive notice of marriage and civil partnership processes, Stopford deliver all-in-one online ceremony booking for marriages and civil partnerships.
Get in touch with your Project Manager for a demo of our online processes.