Same-sex marriages now make up nearly 1 per cent of all married people in the UK

The number of people in same-sex marriages in the UK has grown more than eightfold since records began, the Office for National Statistics has reported. ONS figures show that 206,087 people — 0.8 per cent of all married persons — were in same-sex marriages in 2024, compared with around 26,000 in 2015. By 2022, that figure had already reached roughly 167,000, indicating the sharpest growth came in the years immediately after legalisation in March 2014.

The gender balance within same-sex marriages has shifted over the same period. The 2024 population estimates show men account for 59.5 per cent and women 40.5 per cent of people in same-sex marriages — a gap that has narrowed from the figures cited in the ONS post above, where men were stated at 64.5 per cent and women at 35.5 per cent. Those tweet-specific percentages are not directly replicated in published ONS tables and should be treated with some caution. What the marriage registration data does confirm is that 2022 saw a record number of female same-sex marriages: women made up 62.8 per cent of same-sex marriage ceremonies that year, with 7,800 same-sex marriages registered in England and Wales — 3.2 per cent of all marriages.

There’s a distinction worth keeping in mind. The share of new marriages that are same-sex (around 3 to 4 per cent) is considerably higher than the share of all married people who are in same-sex marriages (under 1 per cent), simply because the bulk of married people are in longer-established opposite-sex marriages. Census 2021 data put adults in same-sex marriages at 0.28 per cent — 134,000 people — of the population aged 16 and over in England and Wales.

For Kent households, no county-level breakdown is routinely published by ONS. But the national growth trajectory implies a rising number of same-sex married households across the county, with consequences for local service planning. Kent County Council’s Registration Service supplies marriage records to national systems, and councils including Canterbury City Council, Maidstone Borough Council, and Medway Council are required under the Equality Act to ensure services treat same-sex married couples without discrimination.

ONS sexual orientation data for 2024 adds further context: an estimated 2.1 per cent of the UK adult household population — around 1.2 million people — identify as gay or lesbian, yet only 18.7 per cent of that group are married. That gap suggests many LGB people remain single, cohabiting, or in civil partnerships rather than in same-sex marriages, even a decade after legalisation.