The institution of marriage took another knock yesterday when government statisticians reported that the number of weddings in 2006 were the lowest for 110 years. Marriages made a significant comeback between 2002 and 2004, but fell by 9% in 2005 in England and Wales, when the long-term trend towards cohabitation out of wedlock resumed.

Provisional figures released yesterday for 2006 showed there were 236,980 marriages, a further 4% decline, the Office for National Statistics said. The Conservatives blamed the decline on the government's social and fiscal policies. The shadow home secretary, David Davis, said: "This is a sad indictment of policies which have penalised families and fuelled family breakdown. Stable families are the best formula for bringing up children and preventing delinquency, antisocial behaviour and crime, so a failed family policy is itself a major cause of crime."

The Church of England attributed the fall in marriages to a "continued trend of couples delaying marriage or avoiding it altogether, not least the mistaken idea that cohabitation is a form of marriage".

A spokesman for the church said marriage remained the best option. "Marriage affirms the goodness and rightness of love between a man and woman, affirms this in the public sphere, beyond private arrangements, and is the best option for couples to grow together in mutual support."

The ONS suggested that the decrease in marriages was partly due to a change in the law in February 2005, designed to crack down on "sham" marriages for purposes such as securing a visa. There may also have been more people getting married abroad, escaping the recording system. It added that the raw figures understated the shift from matrimony and suggested that the true picture was reflected by the marriage rate, a calculation showing the proportion of unmarried adults getting hitched in any given year.

For every 1,000 unmarried men, only 22.8 got married in 2006, compared with 24.5 in 2005. The 2006 figure was the lowest since records began in 1862.

Jill Kirby, director of centre-right thinktank, the Centre for Policy Studies, said the figures were not surprising "in view of the lack of government policy over the last 10 years encouraging marriage".

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "This government supports marriage as it is a sound foundation for raising children. But we want to support all children and families, whether or not their parents are married. The family unit is changing, but this doesn't mean it is breaking down."

The ONS said the average age for people to marry for the first time in 2006 was 31.8 for men and 29.7 for women. In 1991, it was nearly five years less for men and just over four and a half less for women.