What The Ideal Marriage Looks Like Now

Marriage is an act of hope. It’s knowing what broken love feels like, and risking it anyway. It’s knowing that the worldwide divorce rate is 41 per cent (50 per cent in America, 42 per cent in the UK, a third in Australia) and still choosing to walk down that aisle. It’s knowing that a legally binding contract cannot protect you from failure and wishing, desperately, that you’re exempt all the same.

Fewer people are getting married than ever before and those who are, are doing it later in their lives. It may feel like there’s a new wedding hashtag on your Instagram every week, but actually, marriage is at an all-time low across the world. In America, for example, only 29 per cent of people aged 18 to 34 were married in 2018, compared to 59 per cent in 1978. Millennials are three times less likely to get married than their grandparents were. According to the Pew Research Centre, they either don’t feel like they’re financially ready to tie the knot, haven’t found someone with the right qualities or feel like they’re just too young to settle down. We’re seeing a shift in values, as people choose to focus on their careers, have a family or validate their commitment to their beloved in a less legally binding way.