1 in 4 Brits don’t think they will meet the ‘right’ person to marry
Although there is little difference between the willingness of unmarried men and women to tie the knot, a new survey from YouGov found that 1 in 4 Britons don’t think they will ever find the ‘right’ person to marry.
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For decades, the number of marriages across the UK has decreased steadily, and family lawyers across England and Wales are prepping for an influx of divorce filings in the coming months and after the ‘no-fault divorce’ ruling.
But a new YouGov survey shows that the majority of Brits still want to get married (40%), compared to 28% who say they will not, and a further 29% who are unsure.
Do Britons still want to get married? A survey of unwed Brits shows they tend to want to, and that there's little difference in attitudes between men and women
All
Want to: 40% / Don't want to: 28%
Men
38% / 27%
Women
42% / 29%https://t.co/RbWflbKmvA pic.twitter.com/IYzw67dIEL— YouGov (@YouGov) June 29, 2022
The survey questioned 8,765 unwed adults across the UK and found that 23% are skeptical that they’ll ever meet ‘the one’.
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Nearly half (48%) of those surveyed also admitted that they ‘don’t see the point in getting married’.
The poll also showed that 34% of those surveyed, mostly younger Brits, believe that marriage is ‘outdated’. More than half (56%) of those aged 18 to 34 believe this compared to just 15% of those aged 55 and over.
Another 34% of people think that marriage is just ‘not for them’.
Around 35% of younger people admitted that the religious aspect of marriage has put them off, in comparison to just 9% of adults aged 55 and over. In total, 20% of those surveyed stated that these religious ties are the number one reason they refuse to marry.
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Younger people (18%) are also slightly more jaded and unwilling to marry because they’ve “heard or seen bad things”, in comparison to just 4% of adults.
About 14% of people said the possibility of a ‘messy divorce’ has discouraged them from getting married, with men slightly more put off (18%) than women (11%).
Other reasons included not wanting to commit (13%), preferring a civil partnership instead (6%), and having a partner that doesn’t want to get married (5%).
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