A new UK-wide poll commissioned for Marriage Week suggests that, despite falling marriage rates and the normalization of cohabitation, most young adults still see marriage as the clearest way to signal lifelong commitment.
The survey, carried out by polling firm OnePoll for the UK charity Marriage Foundation, questioned 2,000 unmarried adults aged 18 to 30 across the United Kingdom in the run-up to Marriage Week in May 2021. According to a summary published by the charity, more than eight in ten respondents said they wanted to marry at some point in their lives, with the desire to wed cutting across age bands within the 18–30 bracket, social class, length of relationship, and how couples first met.
The same research note highlights that the appetite for marriage is particularly strong among young adults already in relationships. Among the 941 respondents who were dating or cohabiting, Marriage Foundation reports that 86 percent of women and 80 percent of men said they would like to marry one day, while roughly three-quarters in each group expected that they would, in fact, marry. In its published commentary, the charity describes the cohort as the “TikTok generation” and argues that their responses contradict the idea that young adults have given up on marriage as an institution.
Yet the positive attitudes uncovered in the Marriage Week survey sit alongside sobering projections about how many young people will actually marry. In a later analysis of official data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics, titled “The collapse of marriage among Gen Z”, Marriage Foundation estimates that on current trends only about 58 percent of Gen Z women and 56 percent of Gen Z men will ever marry. The charity’s accompanying press release notes that this would represent a sharp decline compared with previous generations, with lifetime marriage rates among millennials, Generation X and baby boomers all significantly higher and overall marriage rates down by around 30 percent since the 1960s.
The Foundation’s analysts connect these projections to structural changes in family life, including the rise of long-term cohabitation. Drawing on the same Office for National Statistics datasets in their press material, they point out that more couples now choose to live together without marrying and that a growing share of children are born to cohabiting parents, even as surveyed young adults still say they want marriage and view it as a stronger commitment than simply sharing a home.
Christian research organizations have also been tracking how younger generations think about marriage. A 2024 study by the evangelical research firm Barna Group surveyed more than 3,500 U.S. adults to explore how Gen Z and millennials approach marriage and family formation, asking not only whether they expect to marry but what factors—such as student debt, housing costs and fear of divorce—shape their decisions to delay or forgo marriage. In parallel, a 2025 “State of Marriage” report from Focus on the Family emphasizes that couples who actively practice their Christian faith report some of the highest levels of perceived marital health, a finding the ministry presents as evidence that faith communities can play a constructive role in supporting young adults who do choose to wed.
Together, these studies sketch a complex picture: surveys from Marriage Foundation and other researchers indicate that most young adults still aspire to marriage and regard it as the most serious form of romantic commitment, yet long-term projections based on current marriage rates suggest that a smaller share of Gen Z may ever marry than any previous generation. For churches and Christian family ministries, that tension is likely to shape ongoing conversations about how best to prepare young adults for marriage and how to walk alongside those who are navigating dating, cohabitation and commitment in a rapidly changing cultural landscape.