The 11.7 year itch -- how marriage is lasting longer as divorce rates plunge

But official figures suggest that British marriages really are lasting longer than a generation ago.

The latest analysis from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that divorce – both measured as a rate and a total number – fell to the lowest level for 40 years in 2014.

Overall 111,169 couples in England and Wales divorced in 2014, a fall of 3.1 per cent in a year and as much as 27 per cent in just over a decade.

The divorce rate has also dropped by around 30 per cent in a decade, for both men and women, to reach 9.3 per thousand married people.