A majority of women between the ages of 16 and 34 have never married in Britain. as more young people are putting off starting families to achieve economic goals, or outright rejecting matrimony.

In the latest blow to the state of the traditional family in the UK, the once-in-a-decade census has revealed that a majority of women in every age group from 16 to 34-years-old have remained unmarried while the number of people overall getting married has fallen to its lowest level on record, the Office for National Statists (ONS) said on Tuesday.

According to the census figures, some 54.2 per cent of women aged between 30 to 34 were unmarried as of 2021, an 11 per cent increase over the previous census in 2011 and over twice as many recorded in 1991 when just 18.3 per cent of 30-34 year old women were unwed. There was also a 13 per cent increase in unmarried women between the ages of 25 and 29, 80.5 per cent of whom were recorded as never marrying.

While the decline in marriage is often attributed to younger generations putting it off until later years, this apparently does not always work out for many women, with the data showing that one in four (23.9 per cent) of women never entered into a marriage or civil partnership by the age of 50.

In total, 37.9 per cent of all adults, or 18.4 million people, had never been married or in a civil partnership in 2021, compared to 34.6 per cent of adults (15.7 million) in 2011, 30.1 per cent (12.5 million) in 2001, and 26.3 per cent (10.5 million) in 1991.

When broken down by ethnicity and taking age into account, the “Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African” groups represented the highest proportion of people who have never been married or entered into a civil partnership, while the lowest was the “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh” ethnic groups.

Commenting on the statistics, Claire Reid of the Hall Brown Family Law firm told The Times that the census figures demonstrated a shifting attitude of women, saying: “Young women are clearly not settling down, at least in the same way as women in previous generations might have done.

“By the late twenties, their mothers might have already married and had children but now marriage holds far less appeal. Part of that thinking will be due to the fact that at a time when young women are in the process of establishing careers or trying to get onto the property ladder, the sheer expense of a big wedding acts almost as a deterrent.

“If they are choosing to have children, they are doing so when they are older. The idea of starting a family in your twenties is now no longer the norm but something of an exception. That certainly doesn’t mean that they are not forming relationships at all. Cohabitation is now perfectly socially acceptable and increasingly seen as common among their peers.”

This changing attitude is likely a result of more women entering the workforce, with 72.2 per cent of women between the ages of 16 and 64 being counted in the workforce compared to 52.7 per cent in 1971. These changes in some cases appear to have been achieved by the government using changing social standards to get women into the workplace and therefore paying taxes. The Conservatives have been as guilty of this as any, maintaining a swath of policies that incentivise women to remain in work and making the choice, should individuals want it, to care for family instead harder.

For example, taxes are levied against individual earnings rather than families as a whole, meaning that family units that rely upon a single income of £50,000 will take home less money than two salaries of £25,000, thus incentivising both parents to work. While a long-standing issue, this has come to particular prominence this week after a speech by pro-family backbencher Miriam Cates caused waves on social media.

Despite the declining demographics of the native British population, the Conservative government has also seemed disinterested in adopting schemes similar to that of Hungary and Poland, which have incentivised motherhood through generous tax incentives.

Frank Young of the Civitas think tank said: “Britain is turning away from marriage and women seem to be moving away from getting wed more than most. The number of women under 40 getting married has plummeted since the early nineties.

“We badly need to remake the case for marriage as a social good — for adults and children — because we are fast becoming a nation of singletons and cohabitees.”

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka