The benefits of getting married or having a civil partnership

With more and more adults choosing to live together rather than get married, or have a civil partnership, just what are the pros and cons?

More of us are choosing not to get married or have a civil partnership. The trend towards living together rather than making a legal commitment has changed radically in the past fifty years, with 7 in 10 adults being married in 1970 as opposed to 4 in 10 in 2024. Civil partnerships although popular account for only around three per cent of the number of people who get married.

So, what are the pros and cons of marriage or civil partnership versus living together.

Marriage/civil partnership

Marriage involves vows and signing a marriage schedule, whilst a civil partnership involves signing a civil partnership schedule. Both are legal commitments, and with that commitment comes legal protection for the partners. Although the overall trend is for less of us to get married, getting hitched is still very popular, in 2022 there was a twelve percent increase in the number of marriages in the UK from 2019.

Pros of marriage/civil partnership.

There are many solid legal reasons to follow this route. For example, if one partner should die without a will then under the Rules of Intestacy they will inherit most of their spouse’s estate. And even if something is specifically stated in a will, a spouse stands a good chance of legally challenging it. A spouse will not be liable to pay inheritance tax either.

Cons. One major negative of getting married is how much it costs to get married. In 2025, on average, it costs £25,000 (a civil partnership is less expensive though). Also, in 2025 around 42% of marriages will end in divorce, which is one of the most stressful things in life.

Co-habiting

More and more of choose to live with a loved one, as opposed to getting married. In 2020 there were 3.5 million couples living together in the UK, more than double the number twenty-five ago.

Pros of living together. Couples choose to live together for many reasons. They want to spend more time with that person and living together can make financial sense.

If couples live together and then decide they do not want to anymore there is no lengthy, expensive and stressful divorce to go through.

Cons of living together. One of the major negatives of not getting married or having a civil partnership but still living with someone as a couple are the lack of legal and financial protections, not only if the other person dies, but if a couple separates and one has given up a career and spent time at home child rearing, they could receive no financial recompense for themselves.

Whilst living together is becoming more popular as an alternative to getting married or having a civil partnership it does not provide the same extensive legal and financial security to all sides.