The number of couples of the opposite sex who get married has dropped to the lowest level in the history of Great Britain, official figures show. A total of 242,842 marriages were registered in England and Wales in 2017, down 2.8 percent from 2016.

The decline may have been partly due to a drop in religious ceremonies, which fell 9.5 percent in 2017 compared to last year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

About 6,932 of the marriages registered in 2017 were between same-sex couples, 44 percent between male couples and 56 percent among women, a figure similar to 2016 when 7019 were registered, the ONS said. More than 1,000 couples turned their existing civil partnership into a marriage and 43 couples of the same sex, married through religious ceremonies in 2017.

This is the first time the data for the year have been published and shows a steady long-term downward trend in the number of marriages between couples of the opposite sex, with a decrease of 45 percent since 1972.

The figures also show an age gap between heterosexual couples, with more women than men getting married at age 30 or younger and more men than women getting married at age 30 or older. This model reflects the fact that men tend to enter into relationships with women younger than themselves.

Mo The average age for men marrying in 2017 was 38 years, while for women it was 35.7 years among heterosexual couples.

Over the past decade, there has been a sharp decline in levels of opposite-sex marriages between men and women younger than 20 (57 percent for men and 62 percent for women).

Alice Rogers, a lawyer with the Hall Brown Family Law Act, said the figures appear to indicate a gap in how different age groups prioritize marriage.

She said: "Many young couples still see themselves trying to clear their student debts, saving and starting a career, and thus questioning the cost of a marriage, especially when they see a lot of their peers deciding to coexist instead. On the other hand, individuals over the age of 55 seem to understand more clearly the benefits of marriage, even if they have already gone through the pain of divorce.

Figures show that women are getting married later in life.