Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe LONDON, March 11 (UPI) -- The British government predicts less than half the couples in the country will be legally married in six years. A report released Thursday also forecasts a growing number of divorces among the elderly, the Mirror said Friday. The divorce rate among younger Britons is expected to stabilize, mainly because so few of them will be getting married. Advertisement Government officials predict by 2011 married couples will be only 47 percent of all couples. That's expected to drop even more to 44 percent by 2021 and 41 percent by 2031. By 2031, only 9 percent of women and 10 percent of men under 30 will be married. The report suggests young people are delaying marriage because they are spending more years in school and many of them are deciding not to tie the knot because they had to live through their parents' divorces. Older people are getting divorced because they have observed from their children's behavior that staying in a failed relationship is not necessary.
