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Civil partnerships

Figures recently published by the Office for National Statistics have shown the number of civil partnerships that have been formed in the UK.

The figures show that in 2011, the number of civil partnerships formed in the UK by same-sex couples was 6,795, compared with 6,385 in 2010. This represents an increase of 6.4%.

The total number of civil partnerships formed in the UK since the Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force in December 2005, up to the end of 2011, is 53,417. This is the equivalent to 106,834 civil partners, which is much higher than was originally estimated in the regulatory impact assessment on the Civil Partnership Act 2004. The impact assessment suggested that by 2010 the estimated likely take-up of civil partnerships in Great Britain would be between 11,000 and 22,000 people in civil partnerships.

Between 2010 and 2011, the number of civil partnership formations increased in England and Scotland, with an increase of 6.6% in England and an increase of 19.1% in Scotland. However, the number of civil partnership formations decreased by 6.0% in Wales and by 23.3% in Northern Ireland.

The number of civil partnerships in the UK peaked in the first quarter of 2006 at 4,869. The high numbers for 2006 are likely to be a result of many same-sex couples in long-standing relationships taking advantage of the opportunity to formalise their relationship as soon as the legislation was implemented.

The number of civil partnerships has since fallen to an average of 1,699 per quarter in 2011. This trend reflects that found in Norway and Sweden where there was a particularly high level of formations immediately after legislation was introduced, followed by a few years of stable numbers at a lower level and an increase in most recent years.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0.

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