From a Sociological Perspective of Marriage and Divorce, to What Does the Term Continuities Refer?

This post explores the long and short term trends in marriage, divorce and cohabitation in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland.

Information technology has been written equally an introduction to the 'matrimony and divorce' topic which is usually taught every bit the second topic within the AQA's families and households A-level sociology specification.

Marriage and Divorce Trends: An Overview

At that place was a long term decrease in the number of marriages per year since the late 1960s when in that location were just over 400 000 marriages every year, until effectually 2008, when the number hitting around 230 000.

There has been a slight increase since then and there are at present effectually 240 000 marriages every year in the U.k., and this number has been relatively stable since 2008.

The number of Divorces per year increased chop-chop post-obit the Divorce Reform Human action of 1969, and then increased steadily until the early 1980s. In the late 1950s, there were only around 20 000 Divorces per year, by the early on 1980s this figure had risen to 160 000 per yr (quite an increment!)

It and then stabilised for most x years and then started to decline in 2003, the number of divorces per year is still refuse. There are currently just under ninety 000 divorces per year in England and Wales.

Spousal relationship Statistics

There has been a long term decline in the number of marriages in England and Wales.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s there were over 400 00 marriages a year, by 2017 there were merely under 250 000 marriages a year.

Although the decline seems to take slowed recently, since 2008.

Marriage Rates

The spousal relationship rates (unsurprisingly) mirror the above – but you see a more than obvious slowing downward of the decline since the 2000s here.

What is the average age of Spousal relationship?

The average age of marriage has increased from 25 for women in the 1960s to 36 for women in 2017, the average age for men is slightly higher.

The 36 average figure might be a bit misleading, the median historic period is slightly younger as shown by the nautical chart below – tardily 20s and early on 30s are when most women get married!

The Decline of Church Weddings

The higher up nautical chart shows the desperate decrease in religious marriages, down to only 22% of all spousal relationship ceremonies by 2017.

90% of couples cohabited earlier marrying in 2017, up from 70% in the late 1990s.

Divorce Statistics

The Divorce Rate was extremely depression in the late 1950s, at only 2.5 per 100 000 married couples.

The Divorce Reform Act of 1969 led to this increasing rapidly to 10 per k in just a few years, by the early 1970s.

The Divorce Rate continued to increment until the early 1990s, when it hit almost xv per thousand married couples. Since then it has been falling and currently stands at 7.v

NB – The Divorce Rate shows a slightly different trend to the 'number of divorces' – this is relative to the number of married couples!

What percent of marriages stop in divorce?

Information technology depends on the yr of union! If nosotros look at the 'peak twelvemonth', 43.9% of people who got married in 1987 were divorced by 2017, the latest figures available. NB this rate might well exist going down, equally wedlock has been failing since 1987.

How long does the average marriage concluding?

The length of union is increasing. For marriages which terminate in divorce, the median length of a marriage stands at effectually 12.5 years.

Principal sources used to write this postal service

Office for National Statistics: Divorces in England and Wales 2018

ONS: Marriages in England and Wales 2017

ONS: Union and Divorce on the Rise, Over 65 and Over.

There are four main factors which can explain for the long term increase in divorce:

• Social policy changes
• Economic cistron
• Changing gender roles
• Postmodernsisation.

This post examines these factors and others.

Social Policy Changes

Social Policy changes are the get-go cistron that explains rapidly increasing divorce in the early on 1970s – the 1969 the Divorce Act extended the grounds of divorce to 'irretrievable breakdown', making divorce possible even if only one partner wanted a divorce.

However, this cannot explain all of the increment, since the divorce charge per unit was rising before the deed, and continued to ascension for many years afterwards.

Economical Factors

Nosotros as well need to wait at economic factors – Increasing inequality in the United kingdom has meant that the lower social classes now go paid less compared to rising living costs (mortgages/ bills). This means that both partners in a marriage now need to practise paid work to get by, which puts a strain on the matrimony which leads to higher numbers getting divorced.

A positive evaluation of this is that divorce rates are college amongst poorer families.

Functionalism

There are a number of reasons linked to the Functional Fit Theory which could explicate the increase in divorce:

•           Functionalists such as Goode (1971) believe that conflict has increased because the family unit has get more isolated from other kin, placing an increased burden on husbands and wives who accept little support from other relatives.

•           Dennis (1975) believes that considering the family performs fewer functions the bonds betwixt husband and wife are weaker.

•           Allan and Crowe (2001) bespeak out that because the family is no longer an economical unit, this makes it easier for families to break up.

The New Right

Would merits that increasingly generous welfare benefits for single mothers is a crucial factor which allows women to divorce if they deem information technology necessary – because if divorce occurs within a family unit, in 9/10 cases, the child will go with the mother – making it difficult to discover full time work – and hence benefits may be a necessary link in the concatenation of explaining the increase in divorce. The New Right would also come across the increasing divorce charge per unit as a sign of wider moral decline, a point of view which is not shared by the side by side iii perspectives.

Feminism/ changing gender roles

The changing position of women in society. Is crucial to agreement the increase in divorce rates.

Women today are much more likely to be in employment today and this means they are less financially dependent on their husbands and thus freer to terminate an unsatisfactory spousal relationship. The proportion of women in some kind of paid work is now 70%, whereas in the 1950s it was less than l%

Giddens himself argues that ii trends are the most of import – the impact of the Feminist movement, which arguably lies backside all of the above changes, and also the advances in contraception – which allows women to avoid unwanted pregnancies – and women in marriages without children will exist freer to leave those marriages. Feminists however, bespeak out that the advances of women can exist exaggerated – women nonetheless earn less than men, and traditional gender norms remain in many families.

Postmodernism

Both organized religion and traditional values have declined in Britain. As a consequence there is no longer a gear up of social values which force people into staying married, there is less social stigma attached to getting a divorce and and then people are freer to choose to get divorced. This change reflects the failing importance of social structure and the ascension of consumer culture – the idea that individuals tin cull their own lifestyles.

Giddens (1992) believes that the nature of matrimony has changed considering the nature of intimate relationships more than generally take inverse:

•           In the early on period of modernity in the late 18th century, union became more than than an economical arrangement as the idea of romantic love adult. The marriage partner was idealised every bit someone who would perfect a person's life. Women kept their virginity waiting for the perfect partner.

•           In the era of what Gidden's calls 'late modernity', plastic sexuality has developed. This means that sex can exist for pleasure rather than conceiving children with your perfect marriage partner. Relationships and marriages are no longer seen every bit necessarily being permanent.

•           Matrimony is now based on confluent love – Dear that is dependent upon partners benefitting from the relationship. If they are not fulfilled in their relationship, couples no longer stay together out of a sense of duty, so divorce and relationship breakup become more than common.

Ulrich Beck points out that divorce has increased considering individualisation. This involves:

• More than opportunities for individuals, especially women, and the opportunity for individuals to take more decisions about every aspect of their lives.

• Increased conflict emerging from increased choice and uncertainty which leads to chaotic relationships and helps explicate the higher divorce rate.

Emma Watson recently coined the term 'cocky-partnering' to demonstrate her happiness with being single, which is in an increasing tendency in the UK

In that location are 16.7 1000000 people in the UK who are unmarried and never married, and the number is increasing, with most 370 000 more unmarried people in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland in 2018 compared to 2017, co-ordinate to the Office for National Statistics.

Unsurprisingly, yous're more likely to be single and never married when y'all're younger compared to when you're older, but at Emma Watson's historic period almost half of people are single. However this has declined to merely 25% of the population for people in their mid 40s.

NB – existence single and non married doesn't necessarily mean you're lonely or celibate: many of these people volition exist dating, maybe in the early stages of a human relationship, perhaps in a more serious relationship and just not living together, so this just their formal status, rather than their actual relationship situation.

Information technology would be interesting to become some stats on how many of these people are actually 'single' in the sense of not being in whatever kind of romantic relationship!

Relevance of this to A-level sociology

This is simply a quick update to highlight the continued trend away from union and towards singledom. This is relevant to the 'matrimony and divorce' topics and the 'refuse in the family' debate inside families and households.

If y'all're interested in understanding why there are more than unmarried people, this mail service is a skillful starting betoken, on the increase in single person households, a closely related topic!

You tin also use the 'definition' of single by the ONS to illustrate some of the limitations of official statistics – in that information technology isn't the aforementioned as how most of united states of america would use the word 'single' when we talk about relationships.

Summary revision notes (in diagram form) on sociological perspectives practical to the decline of wedlock in society, written to help students revise for the families and households section of the AQA'due south A-level folklore paper ii: topics in sociology.

You volition probably demand to click to enlarge/ save the picture below!

Other sources you lot might discover useful:

• Explaining the decline of marriage: class notes

An exploration of some of the issues of official statistics on 'unmarried people'

According to the Office for National Statistics, for the population in England Wales aged sixteen and over, as of 2015

• in that location are 16 1000000 people aged xvi or over who are 'single and take never cohabited or married', equivalent to 34.5% of the adult population.
• there are nineteen.8 million people 'not living every bit a couple', equivalent to 39% of the adult population.

The trouble with these statistics is that they do not actually tell u.s.a. how many 'single' people there are in England and Wales (allow lone the United Kingdom) – at least not if we accept the normally accustomed definition of a single person as 'someone who is unmarried or not involved in a stable sexual relationship'.

Below I explore why I think there are way less single people in the country than these official statistics suggest…

Unmarried people never cohabited or married

There are sixteen one thousand thousand people who are 'unmarried and never cohabited or married', equivalent to 34.5% of the population aged over 16 in England and Wales, at least according to Office for National Statistics, 2015 data.

All the same, while it is interesting to know how many people are 'single, and have never married or cohabited', this isn't the aforementioned as the number of people who are actually single, for the following reasons:

• Firstly, and probably virtually apparently, this system of categorization does not tell u.s.a. the proportion of divorced or widowed people who not married but are in relationships, and thus not single. (Some of these will exist cohabiting as if married of course, and then in 'highly committed relationships!)
• Secondly, it doesn't tell us how many people who are 'single and never cohabited or married' are in committed relationships, and hence non actually single.
• Thirdly, it doesn't tell us how many 'married' people are in empty shell marriages, and thus unmarried in a sense.

NB – the above data came from the Labour Forcefulness Survey, which gleans its information about relationship condition from a series of interview questions – questions which will in no fashion tell us how many bodily unmarried people at that place are in the U.Chiliad. – this item question is only actually simply useful for telling the states the number of married people or in a formal civil partnership and cannot tell united states very much about the human relationship status of the non-married/ civil partnership people.

In fairness to LFS, it does go on to inquire whether people are 'cohabiting', the results for which are shown below…

People 'not living as a couple'

A second possible way of measuring the number of unmarried people in the country, again taken from ONS Labour Forcefulness Survey data,  is to look at 'living arrangements' – and here we detect that approximately 39% of the population are not living as a couple, while 61% are living equally a couple.

I'd say this is a more valid fashion of measuring the number of single people in the country because it includes a clear indication that 61% of the population are either married or cohabiting, rather than just the number of people who are 'married' like in the showtime data set. Withal, it still does non tell us how many single people there are in the country, considering some proportion of people not living as a couple will still be in committed relationships, only the data does not tell us this!

We are thus forced to look elsewhere to discover out how many actual single people there are in the country….

Other sources of data virtually 'single people'

I gauge I've got to at to the lowest degree mention Facebook….. According to 'statistics brain', 37% of people report their relationship status as single on Facebook.

However, this data has validity problems because:

• I don't take access to the methodology used, no details are provided.
• This probably isn't from the United kingdom.
• According to this New Statesman commodity, 40% of 20 somethings are reluctant to report themselves as 'in a relationship' on Facebook unless it is an engagement.

This 2017 Statista survey reports that effectually 27% of the UK population aged 40 to 70 reported that they were single, not currently in a relationship.

While I'thousand inclined to intuit that this is a valid figure, unfortunately I'm not in a position to considerately validate the findings because I own't prepared to pay the subscription fee to proceeds the access required to go the information on sampling techniques (if they even exist in whatsoever meaningful sense because this was an online survey!)

Having said that, the above data is broadly backed up past this 2014 YouGov Poll  which reports that 30% of the UK population are single (although the analysis doesn't go into whatever particular about this aspect of the poll, limiting itself to how people who are in relationships experience about each other).

Personally I think this 30% figure sounds about correct, given that the numbers of single people in their 20s and 30s will probably exist college than those in the their 40s-70s, you'd expect the later percent to exist slightly higher than the Statista results, so it triangulates nicely.

And so…. how many people are single in the UK? About thirty%.

Signposting and Related Posts

This topic is usually taught as function of the families and households module in the outset year of A-level Sociology, and is part of the 'family unit-diverseness' subtopic.

It may seem odd studying single people in a module on the family, only the but fact is that declining matrimony and increasing divorce hateful that more than people stay single for more of their lives than always before!

Further Reading…..

This Enduring Dear Report might be of interest.

Postscript – Fantasy reporting on the geographic distribution of single people

Heads upward on click-allurement lists similar this from The Independent which show you the 'cities with the almost unmarried people in' – here are the results:

The percentages above are for people who are 'unmarried and never married', the problem is that most of these are academy towns…. where lots of young people live, most of whom will move on to another city once they've graduated, and to my mind to get a realistic picture of how 'committed to single life' a city's population is, you'd demand to command for age, and how long they intend to stay in that city. It's sort or ironic, somehow, that geographical instability (almost students only intend to reside in their university boondocks temporarily) skews the figures on how many people are not in a stable relationship (i.eastward. single).

And then of course, every bit I mentioned in a higher place, many of these people volition actually be in committed relationships.

This post summaries some of the changing trends (and continuities) in family unit and household structure in the UK, using data from the Function for National Statistics which collects a range of data annually on families and households in the United kingdom

The Office for National Statistics Families and Households Hub Page is an obviou starting betoken for exploring this consequence . Some of the headline stats include the following:

• In 2015 there were 18.vii million families in the Great britain
• The most common family blazon in 2015 was the married or civil partner couple family with or without dependent children at 12.5 one thousand thousand
• The cohabiting couple family continues to exist the fastest growing family blazon in the UK in 2015, reaching 3.2 million cohabiting couple families
• In 2015 effectually 40% of young adults aged xv to 34 in the UK were living with their parents
• There were 27.0 million households in the UK in 2015, 35% of all households were ii person households
• In 2015 there were seven.7 1000000 people in United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland households who were living alone

Changes to families and households 2005 – 2015

1. Changes to Family unit Households

There has been a significant increase in the number of cohabiting couples, both with and without children, and a slight increase in lone parent households. The number of married couple households both with and without children has remained stable, which means that the overall picture is one of a slight trend towards increasing family diverseness and away from marriage.

ii. Marriage and Cohabitation Trends

The chart beneath clearly shows the slight decline in married households compared to cohabiting and single parent households, only there are yet almost three times every bit many married households compared to cohabiting households!

three. Family Size

Family unit size appears to take remained pretty stable over the past 15 years

4. Households Size in the UK

We have quite a small average households size in the Great britain – with 2 and ane person households making up around two thirds of all households.

5.Multi Family unit Households

Given that they're starting from a small base of operations, there has been a significant ten year increase in multi family households – households with ii or more families in, an increase of ane third in 20 years.

six. The increase in People Living Alone

There has been a dull and steady increase in the overall numbers of people living lonely, but this varies a lot by age – mostly the number of older people living lone has increased, the number of younger people living lone has decreased.

I knocked upwards this cursory 'infographic' in Skitch on the iPad – explaining the decline of matrimony and the increase in divorce.

You might too like the more detailed posts on this topic (which should be linked below)

Identify 2 trends (changes) in the pattern of union despite the fact that the overall number of marriages have declined (4)

• Fewer people are marrying

• At that place are more remarriages

• People are marrying after

• Couples are less likely to marry in church

Suggest three social changes which explain why there has been a turn down in the marriage rate (6)

• There is less pressure to marry – people believe that the human relationship is more than important than legal status

• Secularisation

• Failing shame attached to cohabitation and remaining unmarried and having children outside of matrimony

• Changing position of women – with better chore prospects women are no longer financially dependent on men and are thus able to choose not to ally

• Increasing fearfulness of divorce (linked to risk order/ risk consciousness/ belatedly-modernism)

Suggest 3 reasons for the overall rise in the divorce rate since 1969 (6)

• Changes in the divorce constabulary – equalising the grounds of divorce between the sexes; widening the grounds for divorce, making divorce cheaper (Social Policy)

• Declining stigma and irresolute attitudes – divorce is becoming more socially acceptable (Postmodernism)

• Secularisation – the traditional opposition of churches carries less weight (Postmodernism)

• Individualisation leads to rise expectations of marriage – When the marriage doesn't live up to expectations, divorce is more probable (Tardily-Modernism)

• The changing position of women women are now no longer dependent on men financially so don't demand to stay married for economic reasons (Feminism)

Suggest two reasons for the recent decrease in divorce rates (4)

• Fewer people are getting married, so at that place are fewer people who can divorce

• Because people are getting married later, they are more than likely to stay together

• People can't beget to get a divorce and set two new homes

• Increasing immigration – Immigrants are more likely to hold traditional values and thus less likely to get divroced

Advise two alternatives to Divorce (4)

• Desertion

• Legal separation

• Empty vanquish marriages

Identify two consequences of an increasing divorce charge per unit (iv)

• Increment in single parent households after divorce

• Increment in single person households subsequently divorce

• Potenital harm to children

• Increase in reconstituted families

This is i style of pedagogy/ revising this sub-topic within the marriage and divorce topic of the Families and Households Module. Y'all might need to click on information technology to overstate information technology!

The main trend in spousal relationship in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland is that of long term turn down. This post examines some of the reasons backside this, such as changing gender roles, the increasing cost of living and individualisation

Sociological explanations for the long term decline in matrimony include changing gender roles, the impact of feminism and female empowerment, economic factors such as the increasing cost of living and the individualisation associated with postmodernism.

This post has been written for the families and household topic within A-level folklore. .

Overview of the trends in wedlock in the UK

Part for National Statistics: Divorces in England and Wales 2018

In that location has been a long term pass up in the number of marriages in England and Wales.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s in that location were over 400 00 marriages a yr, by 2017 there were simply under 250 000 marriages a year.

Although the reject seems to have slowed recently, ad even increased since 2008.

The in a higher place graph only shows the long term overall decline in marriage. Other trends include:

• People are more likely to cohabit (although in most cases this is a stride earlier spousal relationship)
• People are marrying later
• The number of remarriages has increased.
• Couples are less likely to marry in church
• There is a greater diversity of marriages (greater indigenous diversity and civil partnerships)
• There has been a very recent increase in the wedlock rate.

Evaluation Point – Even though information technology's declining, spousal relationship is still an important institution because….

• Most households are still headed past a married couple
• Couples may cohabit, but this is ordinarily before getting married – they just get married later
• Almost people still think matrimony is the ideal type of relationship
• The fact that remarriages have increased evidence that people nevertheless value the institution of marriage.

Explaining the long term decrease in marriage

Yous may demand to click on the prototype beneath to see it properly

Economic Factors – The increasing cost of living and the increasing cost of weddings.

Increasing belongings prices in contempo years may be one of the factors why couples choose to get married later in life. The average deposit on a start time abode is now over £xxx 000, with the average cost of a wedding being effectually £18 000. Then for near couples it is literally a choice betwixt getting married in their 20s then renting/ living with parents, or buying a house first so getting married in their 30s. The second option is evidently the more financially rational.

Changing gender roles

Liberal Feminists betoken to changing gender roles as i of the principal reasons why couples get married subsequently. More than half of the workforce is now female person which means that most women do non take to become married in guild to be financially secure. In fact, according to the theory of the genderquake, the reverse is happening – now that most jobs are in the service sector, economic power is shifting to women significant that spousal relationship seems similar a poor option for women in a female economic system.

The New Right

Blame the decline of marriage on moral decline – role of the broader breakdown of social institutions and due to too much acceptance of diverseness. This results in the inability of people to commit to each other, and they meet this as bad for gild and the socialisation of the side by side generation.

Postmodernisation

Postmodernists explain the decline in wedlock as a result of the move to postmodern consumer social club characterised by greater individual choice and liberty. We are used to being consumers and picking and choosing, and so marriage is at present a thing of private choice.

Another process associated with Postmodernisation is the reject of tradition and organized religion (secularisation) – as a result at that place is less social stigma fastened to cohabiting or remarrying after a divorce.

Belatedly Modernism

Associated with the ideas of Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck – argues that the pass up in matrimony is not every bit simple as people simply having more than freedom – People are less likely to get married because of structural changes making life more than uncertain. People may want to go married, just living in a tardily-modern world means marriage doesn't seem like a sensible selection.

Ulrich Beck argues that fewer people getting married is because of an increase in 'take chances consciousness' – people run across that nearly half of all marriages end in divorce and then they are less willing to accept the risk and get married.

Beck too talks well-nigh indivdualisation – a new social norm is that our individual desires are more important than social commitments, and this makes spousal relationship less likely.

Giddens builds on this and says that the typical human relationship today is the Pure Human relationship – one which lasts only as long every bit both partners are happy with it, non because of tradition or a sense of delivery. This makes cohabitation and series monogamy rather than the long term commitment of a spousal relationship more likely.

Evaluation Points

• The turn down of marriage is not every bit unproblematic as it just beingness about individual option
• In that location are general social changes which prevarication behind its turn down
• Nosotros should not exaggerate the decline of wedlock (see details above)

Signposting and Related Posts

This topic is part of the families and households module and related posts include:

Trends in wedlock, divorce and cohabitation UK

For a more 'human explanation' check out this video – sociological perspectives on the decline in marriage

Explaining the Long Term Increase in Divorce – Essay Plan

Examination Yourself

Delight click here to return to the main ReviseSociology habitation page!

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