The number of religious weddings in England and Wales has hit the lowest level on record, the latest figures have revealed. According to data from the Office of National Statistics, published last week, there were 60,069 religious marriages in 2016. The figures have fallen by 4.1 per cent from the previous year and by nearly half (48 per cent) from the turn of the millennium.

While religious marriages have declined, civil marriages have become more popular. In 2016, there were three times as many civil wedding ceremonies as there were religious weddings. This has been a long-term trend. In 1900, 85 per cent of all marriages involved some kind of religious ceremony. By the second half of the 1970s this had fallen to 50 per cent. Since the early 1990s, civil marriages have increasingly outnumbered religious marriages. More and more couples see no need for a religious rite of passage.