Marriage rates appear to have gone through the floor. The number of people getting married in 2019 was the lowest on record. (Records go back to 1862). The number of marriages has fallen by half since the peak in 1972.
People are also getting older when they come to marry . First-time husbands are now on average 34 years old, and wives are 32. In Jane Austen’s day you would have been unmanageable by then!
Marriage was once an aspect of growing up. You got to adulthood and looked for someone to settle down and raise a family with. Not any more. Once, all classes married, now it’s mostly the middle classes. This is a radical change in our society.