Attitudes To Marriage

A recent MORI survey shows that 61% are either married or living as married, 22% single and 17% widowed, divorced or separated.

Just over half believe that the best age for a man and woman to get married for the first time is mid-late twenties and just under two-thirds said that marriage should be forever.

Sixty nine per cent of those that had been married said that they hadn't lived with their partner before getting married and 39% of all said that they felt it was important for couples to live together before they got married.

Of all those that had been married, 77% said that they had only been married once. For those people that had been married more than once that were not married at present, 86% said that their previous marriage had ended in divorce.

Just over half agreed that without wedding vows it is too easy for people to walk out of a relationship. Forty three per cent agree that it should be made more difficult for people to get divorced. Seventy one per cent disagree that marriage is dead.

The three most important factors that make a successful marriage were faithfulness (79%), eighty one per cent disagree with extra marital affairs, understanding and tolerance (77%) and mutual respect and appreciation (75%). The top three main causes of divorce in Britain were unfaithfulness (73%), violence (61%) and lack of respect for each other (54%).

Of those who do not want to get married, 38% said that it was because they are happy in their current situation.

Technical details

MORI interviewed a representative sample of 1,854 adults aged 15+ across Great Britain, face-to-face, in-home between 24-27 October 1997.