The proportion of Britons choosing to marry is at the lowest level since the figure was first calculated in 1862.

Politicians and financial experts blamed the Government for the fall in the marriage rate, saying that the tax system encourages people to stay single. Academics said that young people were increasingly wary of commitment, and many preferred the freedom of the single lifestyle.

The data, published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics, reflects a steady decrease in the number of marriages, bar a brief rise between 2002 and 2004.

The 2006 figures show that the marriage rate for men was 22.8 per 1,000, and for women 20.5 – the lowest rate in 144 years. And the number of marriages fell by 4 per cent in 2006 to 236,980, compared with just over 244,000 the previous year. There has not been a year with fewer marriages in England and Wales since 1895.

Mike Warburton, senior tax partner at the accountants Grant Thornton, said: “There really are no tax incentives for marriage these days. Labour removed the married couples’ allowance and when you look at that in conjunction with the way tax credits work then you are better off being a single parent.”

The average age for marrying has gone up by about five years since 1991, and in 2006 the average age for a first marriage was 31.8 for men and 29.7 for women. Furthermore, since 1981, the number of unions that were the first for both partners has fallen by more than a third.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “This is a sad indictment of the Government’s policies, which have penalised families and fuelled family breakdown.”

Since 1992 there have been more civil than religious ceremonies. The 2006 figures show that 66 per cent of ceremonies were civil, up by 1 per cent on the previous year, and up from 47 per cent in 1990. Religious ceremonies continued to decline in popularity, down by 7 per cent since 2005 and reduced by half since 1991. Over the same period the total number of marriages fell by 23 per cent.

Claire Tyler, chief executive of Relate, said: “According to recent official data, two thirds of the population now feel that there is little difference socially between living together and being married. We are also finding that those who marry today tend to be older and wealthier. It seems that society is separating along socio-economic lines and the common experience of marriage no longer exists in the way it used to.”

Additional figures for 2005, also published yesterday, show that the sharpest fall in the number of marriages was in London and the smallest in the North East. Divorce rates also fell by 8 per cent in 2005 compared with 2004.

Frank Furedi, a professor of sociology at the University of Kent, said the statistics obscured a deeper problem. “It’s not that cohabitation has replaced marriage, it’s that more and more people are not able to have close relationships. People who are not married feel they resonate with the times.”

The decrease in the number of marriages has also been partly ascribed to a change in the law in February 2005, designed to crack down on “sham” marriages carried out for purposes such as securing a visa.

A Church of England spokesman said: “Marriage affirms the goodness and rightness of love, affirms this in the public sphere, and is the best option for couples to grow together in mutual support.”

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