The proportion of women who are married in England and Wales has dipped below 50 per cent while the number of people who are single continues to increase.

New data published by the Office for National Statistics today shows that since 2008 the proportion of men who are married has fallen by 1.8 per cent from 53.3 per cent to 51.5 per cent.

But the number is now below 50 per cent for women, having dropped by 1.3 per cent from 50.8 per cent a decade ago to 49.5 per cent in 2018.

However, the overall size of the married population increased over the past decade because of overall increases in the size of the population.

The statistics represent a potentially landmark moment for the institution of marriage in England and Wales as the proportion of people getting hitched continues to slide.

Edward Morgan, from the Centre for Ageing and Demography at the ONS, said: 'In England and Wales, around half of the population aged 16 years and over were married in 2018.

'The proportion of people married has been in decline over the last decade, while the single population has been increasing.

'However, those in their 70s and beyond are seeing a different trend where, despite a modest rise in the divorced population, the proportion of people aged 70 years and over who are married has been increasing at a greater rate.'

Overall, the proportion of the population aged 16 and over in England and Wales who are married has continued its slow fall to 50.5 per cent, down slightly on the 51 per cent recorded in 2017.

ONS data published today shows that the single population is growing while marriage remains in a state of decline

The ONS data showed that the percentage of single people has grown across almost every age group since 2008

While marriage is declining, being single is increasingly popular.

The ONS data shows that the number of people aged 16 and over who are single and have never married rose by just shy of 370,000 from 2017 to a total of 16.7 million people in 2018.

That equates to some 35 per cent of the adult population.

Meanwhile, the number of adults who live with a partner but have never married has continued to increase.

The overall figure has gone up by 1.3 million people since 2008 to some five million - 10.4 per cent of the adult population - in 2018.

The Conservative Party under David Cameron tried to boost marriage rates across the UK by introducing tax breaks for married couples worth up to £200 a year.

Mr Cameron said when he was prime minister that he wanted more people to get married because 'there is something special about marriage' and that it led to more 'stability' in families.

'The values of marriage are give and take, support and sacrifice - values that we need more of in this country,' he said in 2013.

But the new statistics show the attempts to reverse the decline of marriage have failed.

Comparing the numbers from 2008 to those from 2018 show that there has been a 2.3 per cent increase in the proportion of men who are single and a 2.5 per cent increase for women.

Single men are more common than single women mainly because there are more males than females under the age of 30 when people are more likely to not be married.

Some 38.4 per cent of men are single compared to 31.7 per cent of women.

Meanwhile, the proportion of men who are divorced has fallen by 0.4 per cent but for women it has gone up by 0.5 per cent.