Spirit of the age

Reported in The Week, 28 May 2022, page 6.

The number of men and women getting married has fallen to a new low, according to the Office for National Statistics. In 2019, 219,850 couples married in England and Wales, the fewest since 1893. Just one in five couples had a religious ceremony. The average age of the newlyweds reached a record high, of 32.3 years for women and 34.3 for men.