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Chapter 1: Marriage
ISSUES: Marriage
Chapter
1 Marriage
The state of the UK’s relationships
Following the publication of
The Way We Are Now
in 2014, Relate, Relationships
Scotland andMarriage Care have once again commissioned a representative survey
of over 6,000 people throughout the UK to profile the nation’s relationships, offering
a rich insight across five areas of our lives.
T
his unique survey offers us
a glimpse of the home lives,
working lives and sex lives
of people in the UK and offers a
perspective on the quality of our
relationships with partners, families,
friends and colleagues.
The Way We Are Now
offers plenty to
celebrate – the vast majority of people
enjoy good quality relationships:
87% of people in couples are happy
with their relationships; 71% of us
enjoy good relationships with our
colleagues; and nine out of ten of us
report having close friends.
However, it also gives us an insight
into the strains people face – with 61%
of parents identifying money worries
as a top strain on relationships; 22% of
workers saying they work more hours
than they want to and this damages
their health; and one in six people who
are disabled or living with long-term
health conditions reporting that they
have no close friends.
For Relate, Relationships Scotland
and Marriage Care this is a familiar
picture. Our work with individuals,
couples and families throughout the
UK gives us first-hand experience of
how people are working hard to stick
together through good times and bad.
And
The Way We Are Now
reflects these
insights, including the results from
a poll of over 450 of our relationship
support practitioners.
Digging deeper, our findings tell a
story about the interconnectedness
of our lives, demonstrating why to
consider relationships a purely private
matter is to miss the point entirely. Is-
sues traditionally considered to fall
within the remit of
public policy – such
as the state of peo-
ple’s finances, con-
ditions at work and
provision for people
who are disabled or
living with long-term
health
conditions
– have real impacts
on our relationships.
And conversely our
relationships impact
these realms – af-
fecting our health,
our well being and
even our productiv-
ity at work. To that
end, it’s hearten-
ing that politicians,
policy makers, and
commentators are increasingly recog-
nising that relationships matter.
Relationships are our bedrock; they
see us through the tough times. It’s
therefore good news that the majority
of us enjoy good relationships with
our partners, families, friends and
colleagues.
However, as our survey shows, life
can put up barriers to relationships
– such as money worries and work
pressures. And for some groups the
barriers seem to be higher – with our
findings in relation to people who
are disabled or living with long-term
health conditions offering particularly
worrying insight.
When it comes to couple relationships,
the majority of us understand the
vital importance of communication
and sharing problems, and we value
commitment, and marriage as a sign
of that commitment. And with the
advent of equal marriage more of us
are now free to choose to express our
commitment in the way that suits us
best.
However, we know our lives are
built upon a rich patchwork of
relationships and it’s the quality of
these relationships overall which will
determine whether or not we thrive.
2015
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The above information is reprinted
with kind permission from Relate.
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for
further information.
© Relate 2017
