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Government plans to give cohabiting couples automatic marriage-style rights could further undermine marriage and worsen Britain’s demographic crisis, with new research suggesting similar reforms could be associated with tens of thousands fewer births each year.
Under proposals being considered for England and Wales, couples who have lived together continuously for three years, or who cohabit and have a child together, would automatically acquire greater rights over property and finances.
Couples would be able to opt out through a legal agreement, but they would otherwise acquire the new rights without having chosen to marry or formally opt into the arrangement.
The Government argues that the reforms would provide protection for some of Britain’s more than 3.5 million cohabiting couples while maintaining a legal distinction between cohabitation and marriage.
However, research from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) suggests the reforms, which it has dubbed “marriage-lite,” could have serious unintended consequences for marriage, family stability, and Britain’s already historically low birth rate.
The CSJ examined Finland, which introduced a narrower system of automatic rights for cohabiting couples in 2011, comparing its subsequent experience with countries whose demographic trends had previously been similar.
Its analysis estimates that the rate at which Finnish women entered their first marriage was 23 per cent lower within seven years than it would have been without the reform. Crucially, the decline in marriage was not offset by more stable cohabiting relationships.
Fertility also fell sharply. The CSJ found a significant association between the reform and a Finnish fertility rate that was 21 per cent lower by 2018 than its model suggested it otherwise would have been. Previous academic research has attributed 42 per cent of Finland’s decline in first births to declining fertility among cohabiting couples.
Applying the Finnish experience to England and Wales, the CSJ estimates that equivalent reforms introduced in 2011 could have resulted in 111,014 fewer marriages between 2012 and 2023.
Its modelling suggests the total fertility rate in 2024 could have been 1.25 children per woman rather than the already exceptionally low 1.41. Since 2021, that difference would represent an average of around 75,000 fewer babies born each year.
The proposals also raise a fundamental question about what marriage will legally mean in England and Wales.
The Conservative Government’s Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 introduced no-fault divorce, removing the requirement for one spouse to establish fault or a period of separation before a divorce could proceed. Marriage was consequently made easier to dissolve, including where only one spouse wanted the marriage to end.
Now, the proposed cohabitation reforms risk eroding the distinction from the opposite direction. People who deliberately choose not to marry could nevertheless find themselves automatically acquiring some marriage-style financial obligations.
Taken together, marriage risks being hollowed out from both sides: permanence has been weakened for those who choose it, while some of its legal consequences could now be imposed on those who do not.
Public enthusiasm for the latest reform also appears limited. Polling of 1,515 UK adults commissioned by the CSJ found nearly 60 per cent agreed that couples should choose whether to marry rather than automatically acquire marriage-style rights after living together for a specified period.
By 56 per cent to 13 per cent, respondents also rejected the proposition that simply living with somebody should give that person a legal claim over their partner’s savings, property, or pension.
Sophia Worringer, Deputy Research Director at the CSJ, said Finland should serve as a warning.
“The lesson from Finland is clear: marriage fell, cohabitation declined, and fertility dropped,” she said.
“With birth rates already at historic lows and population ageing piling pressure on the public finances, the potential costs are too great, and the evidence too significant, to ignore.”
SPUC’s Executive Director, Michael Robinson, commented on the proposals: “One of the greatest guarantees for children having a healthy start in life is to be born to a married mother and father. Whether it be gay marriage in 2014, divorce liberalisation in 2020, or the new “marriage-lite” proposals, the meaning of marriage in England and Wales is made evermore hollow. Whilst this may financially benefit some adults it has completely ignored the most important people in society: children. This will not only harm their development, but mean less are born. The West cannot afford more measures that will decimate our birth rates. The Government must throw these plans on the scrap heap where they belong.”
