Married people now a minority

London Married people are a minority in the adult population for the first time, newly-released statistics suggest.

The rising divorce rate and the increasing trend of cohabiting have combined to ensure husbands and wives make up less than half the population. As a result, most people above the age of 16 are now single, divorced or widowed, the report by the Office for National Statistics indicates.

The data for 2005, the most recent year available, show that the number of married people in the adult population of England and Wales dropped to 50.3 per cent.

With the number of married couples following a steady downward path since 1997, the proportion of married couples would have dipped below half in 2006.