WE OFTEN think of women as the picky ones wanting to tick off their list of attributes for Mr Right but it seems men are actually the ones holding out “to meet the right person”.

In a new survey, more men than women suggested the reason they hadn’t got married was because they had not met “the one”.

The survey of more than 2000 people in the United Kingdom was commissioned by law firm Seddons and released by the Marriage Foundation, an organisation that aims to encourage long-lasting relationships.

It found 35 per cent of men said they hadn’t met the right person compared to just 29 per cent of women.

“We should not be alarmed when we see couples of today being choosier than the generation before them. Previous Marriage Foundation research has shown women now typically marry in their early 30s, men in their mid-30s,” Foundation chairman Sir Paul Coleridge said.

“The good news is that when couples do finally get round to making a solid commitment it is far more likely to last than 20 years ago.

“The rate of divorce in the early years has been falling steadily for the last nine years and although men are taking longer to commit when they do it is much more likely to be a carefully considered permanent decision.

“The essential ingredient for marriage is deciding to make a mutual lifelong commitment and not sliding or drifting into cohabitation with little or no planning.

“Similarly, planning your first baby, as Marriage Foundation research showed last week, also increases your chances of staying together forever.”