? Marriage rates have fallen to the lowest level since records began in 1862. In 2007 (the most recent year for which figures are available), marriages registered in England and Wales fell to 231,450, the lowest number since 1895, when there were 228,204. Since 1991 the number of marriages has fallen by a quarter.
? In 2007, 21.6 men got married per 1,000 unmarried men aged 16 or over, down from 23 in 2006. The rate for women was 19.7 per 1,000, down from 20.7 in 2006.
? The divorce level in England and Wales is at its lowest rate since 1981, with 11.9 divorcing people per 1,000 members of the married population. In 2006 the figure was 12.2.
? In 2006-7 divorces granted in the UK fell by 2.6 percent to 144,220 from 148,141, the third consecutive fall and the lowest number since 1977. The figure is 20 per cent lower than the highest number of divorces: 180,018 in 1993.
? Until 1857 divorce could only be granted by an Act of Parliament. But the Matrimonial Causes Act gave a new divorce court power to end marriages.
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? Before 1925 a woman had to prove adultery and aggravating circumstances such as cruelty or bigamy before she could be granted a divorce from her husband.
? Another Act in 1937 extended grounds for divorce, but it wasn’t until the Divorce Reform Act of 1969 that a marriage could be ended if it had irretrievably broken down and fault did not have to be proved.