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A pâtissier puts the final touches to a wedding cake.
A pâtissier puts the final touches to a wedding cake. Photograph: Robert Ormerod/The Guardian
A pâtissier puts the final touches to a wedding cake. Photograph: Robert Ormerod/The Guardian

More than 15,000 same-sex couples have married, says ONS

This article is more than 8 years old

Of the 15,098 same-sex marriages to have taken place in England and Wales since it became legal to do so, 7,732 were conversions from civil partnerships

More than 15,000 same-sex marriages have taken place in England and Wales since it became legal to do so.

The Office for National Statistics confirmed a total of 15,098 couples had legally married after the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 came into force on 29 March last year. Of those, 7,732 were conversions from civil partnerships.

This meant that the number of civil partnerships formed in England and Wales fell by 70% – from 5,646 in 2013 to 1,683 in 2014. In December 2014, only 58 civil partnerships were formed compared with 314 in the same month in 2013, a fall of 84%.

Of the 7,366 same-sex marriages that took place from 29 March 2014 to 30 June 2015, 55% (4,059) were between women and 45% (3,307) were between men. Those who chose to convert their civil partnerships into a marriage were roughly evenly split between male and female couples.

Gianna Lisiecki-Cunane, a family lawyer with JMW Solicitors, said the figures appeared to suggest that gay women shared the preference of their heterosexual counterparts for the security and stability of marriage.

Graph

She said: “Even though it might seem to be a stereotype, more female same-sex couples than males are opting for the greater commitment which marriage is taken to represent. However, the history of civil partnerships makes clear that women are also more likely than men to end those relationships which aren’t working out.

“Given that married couples must wait a year before they can divorce and the first same-sex marriages only took place in March last year, it is reasonable to assume that we might detect a similar pattern among gay married women in the future.”

The uptake of marriages was notably slower than the number of civil partnerships that were formed in the first few days of same-sex couples being allowed to do so in December 2005.

Chart

In 2005, 1,227 civil partnerships were formed in the first three days of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 coming into force. But only 98 marriages took place in the first three days of the Marriage Act 2013. The ONS says this is possibly down to the lack of alternative options when civil partnerships were introduced.

The average age at marriage for same-sex couples was 40 for men and 37 for women. In comparison the average age at formation of a civil partnership in 2014 was 44 for men and 42 for women.

Additionally, the number of conversions from civil partnerships taking place has decreased each month from a peak of 2,401 in December 2014, with the exception of May 2015 when there was a small rise.

Lisiecki-Cunane said the appeal of converting existing civil partnerships into same-sex marriages might be wearing off. “Just as with the introduction of the partnerships themselves, there was an initial rush of individuals wanting to change the status of their relationships,” she said. “However, the numbers of people doing so has dropped markedly since the chance of conversions came into force last December.

“It may well be that gay couples wanting to formalise their relationships will simply opt for marriage which brings into question the continuing validity of civil partnerships as they might be regarded as a second-class system.”

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