A story released today by the Times reports that according to Britain’s Office for National Statistics the number of couples getting married in 2000 rose by 2 percent to reach 267,961, the first increase in eight years.

The upward trend is expected to continue at least until 2011, fueled by a predicted 10 to 25 percent increase in marriages between those aged 30 to 59 who have never married before, a phenomenon described by government officials as "catching up".

John Haskey, of the ONS, said the growing trend for people to delay marriage had created a pool of unmarried people who were "at risk of", or eligible for, marriage. "If people have delayed marriage, they remain eligible and they accumulate. . .this means that the potential for the marriage rate to pick up is there," he said.

The average age of marriage is now 35 for men and 32 for women, compared with 28 and 26 respectively ten years earlier. The increase in the number of marriages is also due to a rise in the number of second unions. The proportion of marriages where both partners are getting married for the first time has now fallen below 60 percent of the total, the figures show. Marriages which are remarriages for both partners now constitute nearly a fifth of all weddings, while marriages involving one partner who has been married account for nearly a quarter.

A spokeswoman for the National Family and Parenting Institute said that the figures showed that the tendency to write off marriage was premature. "Marriage is still something that most people want. If you ask teenagers, the vast majority will tell you that they hope to get married one day," she said.

The figures also show that more people are opting for civil rather than religious marriage, as couples take advantage of the new freedom introduced in 1995 to marry in venues such as hotels and castles.