The Office for National Statistics has recently published a bulletin giving provisional annual statistics on marriages and civil partnerships that took place in England and Wales in 2010.

Key facts revealed by the statistics include:

• The provisional number of marriages in England and Wales in 2010 increased by 3.7% to 241,100.
• In 2010 the provisional marriage rate increased to 8.7 people marrying per thousand unmarried population aged 16 and over, from 8.5 in 2009.
• Civil ceremonies accounted for 68% of all marriages which took place in 2010, an increase from 64% in 2000.
• The highest number of marriages were for men and women aged 25 to 29.
• The largest percentage increase in numbers from 2009 to 2010 were for men aged 45 to 49 and women aged 30 to 34, both rising by 6%.
• Civil partnership formations increased in 2010, after a succession of falling numbers between 2006 and 2009. The number of civil partnerships formed in the UK by same-sex couples increased by 1.7%, from 6,281 in 2009 to 6,385 in 2010. The total number of civil partnerships formed in the UK since the Civil Partnership Act came into force in December 2005, up to the end of 2010, is 46,622.