How common are prenuptial agreements in England & Wales, who's signing them, and how fast is that changing? Here are the most-cited UK prenup statistics — each with its source and date. Free to cite.
Key takeaways — reviewed July 2026
1 in 5
of UK weddings now involve a prenuptial agreement
Marriage Foundation / Savanta ComRes survey of 2,027 ever-married adults, 2021 — up from around 1.5% of 1970s marriages, and re-confirmed by the Foundation's November 2025 follow-up survey (Whitestone, 2,000 UK adults aged 18–35).
~10%
of married or civil-partnered couples have a nuptial agreement (pre- or post-nup) in place
Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management research, reported January 2025 — the gap between attitudes and action is still wide.
20% vs 16%
of married men vs married women aged 18–35 have signed a prenup
Marriage Foundation / Whitestone survey of 2,000 UK adults aged 18–35, November 2025 — 599 of them married.
+60%
growth in prenup enquiries between 2022 and 2024
Reported from Co-op Legal Services — later marriages, second marriages and rising asset values are all driving demand.
£1,500–£3,000+
typical cost of a solicitor-drafted prenup — before each partner's own advice
Composite of published UK family-law firm fee guides, 2025–2026. Independent advice for each party is usually essential for the agreement to carry weight.
Our online prenuptial agreement is a fixed £199.
No link
prenups do not increase — or reduce — the risk of divorce
Marriage Foundation, 2021 — countering the common worry that “planning for divorce” makes it more likely.
Prenups have moved from celebrity curiosity to mainstream planning — and the pipeline is even bigger than the take-up.
+50%
rise in couples asking one London law firm for cohabitation agreements in a single year — planning is spreading beyond marriage
Forsters LLP caseload data, year to April 2026, alongside a Forsters-commissioned YouGov poll of 2,108 UK adults.
6 in 10
unmarried 18–35 year-olds would consider signing a prenup when they marry
Marriage Foundation / Whitestone, November 2025 — 60% of men and 58% of women; only about a quarter ruled one out.
48%
of Gen Z adults who want to marry say they'd be likely to sign a prenup
Charles Russell Speechlys, Gen Z life-milestones research, 2025.
+51%
jump in prenup enquiries at a leading London law firm in a single year (2022 vs 2021)
Stewarts, 51.2% rise reported April 2024 — echoing demand growth reported across the sector.
75%
of UK adults agree nuptial agreements help prevent legal disputes
JMW Solicitors survey of 1,000 UK adults, May 2026 — 70% also said they make divorce more straightforward.
53%
of engaged or married Americans under 45 have signed a prenup (US comparison)
The Harris Poll for Bloomberg News, 2026 — up from 41% of Gen Z and 34% of millennials in Harris's 2022 wave. US data, for contrast.
The “prenups are unromantic” stereotype doesn't survive contact with the polling.
42% vs 13%
Britons calling prenups a good idea outnumber those calling them a bad idea by more than 3 to 1
YouGov, March 2023 — and women are keener than men (47% vs 38%).
22%
would prefer to have a prenup if they were marrying for the first time today
YouGov, March 2023 — rising to over half of higher-earning men.
31%
say being asked for a prenup would make them feel worse about the relationship — falling to just 15% of 18–24s
YouGov, March 2023 — only 15% of Britons think a prenup makes divorce more likely; 51% say it makes no difference.
Couples marry older than ever, with more savings, property and pension built up before the wedding day — exactly what a prenup ring-fences.
34.8 & 33.0
median ages of groom and bride at marriage in England & Wales — among the oldest on record
ONS, Marriages and civil partnerships in England and Wales: 2023 (released November 2025) — opposite-sex-marriage medians; 231,949 marriages and civil partnerships took place that year.
£61,090
average UK first-time buyer deposit — often built up by one partner before marriage
Halifax First-Time Buyer Review, 2024 data — on an average first home of £311,034.
£39,500
median private pension wealth of 35–44 year-olds who hold pensions — and pensions are divisible on divorce
ONS Wealth and Assets Survey 2020–22, published January 2025 — 25–34s with pensions hold a median £18,800.
£21,990
the average cost of a UK wedding in 2025
Hitched.co.uk National Wedding Survey, published January 2026.
31%
of couples marrying in 2027 or later plan loans to pay for the wedding — up from 23% in 2019
Pepper Money research, poll of 2,007 UK homeowners, February 2025.
£5.5 trillion
will pass between UK generations over 30 years — the ‘great wealth transfer’ a prenup can help keep in the family
Kings Court Trust / Centre for Economics and Business Research, projection for 2017–2047.
Nobody plans for divorce — but the numbers on how long it takes, and what it costs, are why couples plan ahead.
40.7%
of couples who married in 1998 had divorced by their 25th wedding anniversary
ONS, Divorces and dissolutions in England and Wales: 2023 (released July 2025), cohort analysis — newer cohorts are trending down: 16.8% of 2013 marriages had ended by their 10th anniversary vs 23.6% of the 1998 cohort.
102,678
divorces were granted in England & Wales in 2023 — the first full year of no-fault divorce
ONS, Divorces and dissolutions in England and Wales: 2023 (released July 2025).
12.7 years
the median length of a marriage that ended in divorce
ONS, Divorces and dissolutions in England and Wales: 2023 — opposite-sex couples.
67 weeks
the average time from divorce application to final order — before any separate financial proceedings
Ministry of Justice, Family Court Statistics Quarterly, Jan–Mar 2026 (published June 2026).
£14,561
the average cost of divorce and separation for UK couples — legal fees and lifestyle costs, excluding housing
Aviva Family Finances Report, 2018 survey of 1,000+ divorced or separated adults — widely cited since.
£135,000
the median TOTAL asset pool of a divorcing couple — home and pensions included, debts deducted
‘Fair Shares?’, University of Bristol / Nuffield Foundation, November 2023 — most divorces are not millionaire cases.
What actually happens to money on divorce — and why agreeing terms in advance is the norm, not the exception.
1 in 3
divorcing couples finalise their finances with any court order at all — the rest walk away with nothing legally binding
‘Fair Shares?’, University of Bristol / Nuffield Foundation, November 2023.
73%
of financial remedy applications are uncontested consent orders — couples who agreed terms in advance are the norm
Ministry of Justice, Family Court Statistics Quarterly, Jan–Mar 2026 — 73% of the quarter's 12,646 applications were uncontested. Across 2025 there were 49,067 applications in total (FCSQ Oct–Dec 2025).
11%
of divorcees with an undrawn pension made any pension-sharing arrangement
‘Fair Shares?’, November 2023 — 37% didn't even know the value of their own pension.
49%
of private family law cases ended with neither side having a lawyer
Ministry of Justice, Family Court Statistics Quarterly, Jan–Mar 2026 — up 3 percentage points in a year.
8–1
the Supreme Court majority in Radmacher v Granatino (2010) that made properly-made prenups carry real weight
UK Supreme Court, [2010] UKSC 42 — courts should give effect to an agreement freely entered into with a full appreciation of its implications, unless unfair.
0
official statistics exist on how often courts uphold prenups — any site quoting a precise percentage has invented it
See Thompson, ‘Unreported nuptial agreements in England and Wales’, IJLPF 2025 — most agreements never reach a reported judgment. What is knowable is the Radmacher test itself.
Score your own agreement against it with our prenup validity checker.
Around 1 in 5 UK weddings now involve a prenuptial agreement (Marriage Foundation, 2021), up from around 1.5% of 1970s marriages — though Handelsbanken research suggests only about 10% of married or civil-partnered couples have a nuptial agreement in place. The Foundation's November 2025 follow-up survey re-confirmed the 1-in-5 figure.
Yes — clearly so among younger couples: the Marriage Foundation's November 2025 survey found 20% of married men and 16% of married women aged 18–35 have signed one, around 6 in 10 unmarried 18–35s would consider one, and Co-op Legal Services report about 60% growth in enquiries between 2022 and 2024.
Attitudes have shifted markedly — a prenup has gone from taboo to mainstream financial planning, especially among younger and remarrying couples: around 6 in 10 unmarried 18–35 year-olds say they would consider one (Marriage Foundation, 2025), and YouGov finds supporters outnumber opponents by more than three to one. If you’re weighing it up, the prenup calculator shows what could be at stake without one.
Not any more. Prenups were once associated with high-net-worth or celebrity marriages, but they're increasingly used by ordinary couples protecting a first home, a pension, a business or an inheritance — part of why take-up among 18–35s has risen so sharply. A prenuptial agreement is worth considering whenever one of you brings assets into the marriage, and our validity checker shows how well one would hold up.
No. Marriage Foundation research (2021) found that prenups neither increase nor reduce the risk of divorce, countering the common worry that "planning for divorce" makes it more likely.
Aviva's widely-cited 2018 research puts the average cost of divorce and separation at £14,561 in legal fees and lifestyle costs, and the University of Bristol's ‘Fair Shares?’ study (2023) found nearly 1 in 10 divorcees spent £10,000 or more just sorting out the money. Setting out how assets would be divided in a prenuptial agreement is one way couples aim to avoid a contested — and expensive — dispute later.
The average divorce in England & Wales now takes about 67 weeks from application to final order (Ministry of Justice, 2026) — and that's before any separate financial proceedings, in which more than a quarter of applications (27%) are contested in court. The marriages ending in divorce lasted a median of 12.7 years (ONS, 2023 data, opposite-sex couples). Couples who agree financial terms in advance are the norm: 73% of financial remedy applications are uncontested consent orders.
You're welcome to cite this page — it's kept current and free to use. A link back helps other readers find the sources.
UK Prenup — “UK prenup statistics (2026)”, https://ukprenup.com/prenup-statistics/