The line chart illustrates how many marriages occurred in the UK between 1951 and 2001.
Overall, the marriage numbers experienced steady trends over the first three decades. However, while first marriages declined considerably, the opposite was true for the case of remarriages over the last two decades. These contributed to a downward trend in the total count of all marriages.
In 1951, around 350,000 people in the UK got their first marriages. This figure then stabilized in the next 30 years, despite a slight increase of about 10000 in 1971, before decreasing significantly to just above 250,000 in 2001.
A contradictory pattern can be observed in the remarriages section. After stabilizing at about 150,000 in the first three decades, the figure grew significantly to just below 200,000 in 2001. Moreover, all marriages recorded a remarked growth to the peak of approximately 450,000 in the first 20 years, then constantly declined to about 375,000 in 2001.