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Since the introduction of Civil Partnerships we have all heard about the phenomenal success of the first year followed by claims that the market has dropped by 46% .
Gino Meriano Founder of Pink Weddings and gay rights campaigner for same-sex families says ”When you look at what drives the gay and lesbian wedding market it becomes obvious that this reduction would happen but it isn’t a dramatic market drop as some scare mongers suggest, it’s simply levelling itself out. It is a fundamental error to count the first year’s figures as typical.”
The numbers reflect the massive pent-up demand from gay and lesbian couples typically seeking to secure long-awaited legal rights. These combined with a swell of couples swept up in the history and moment means using anomalous previous figures to form a trend is fraught with error.
Meriano continues,” If you do the math, the Government states around 6% of the UK’s population identifies as gay and given the average age for couples holding a Civil Partnership is over 35 means the true level for Civil Partnership formations averages between 800 and 1000 a month. Looking at current average figures of 750 per month, the market is not performing badly at all.”
Looking deeper at the future figures alone, we see Westminster will take the number one slot.
1. Westminster
2. Brighton and Hove
3. Kensington and Chelsea
4. Kent
5. Islington
6. Manchester
7. Norfolk
8. Surrey
9. Hampshire
10. Birmingham
Looking at Wales, Cardiff retains its first position by holding about 50% more Civil Partnerships than next place Swansea. While in Scotland, Edinburgh’s pulls away further by around 40% more Civil Partnerships than second place Glasgow. And Eastern Northern Ireland remains ahead of the Western area by 80%.
Since the introduction of Civil Partnerships in December 2005, Brighton and Hove continue to lead the way overall proving it to be the top destination for Civil Partnerships across the UK.
In total, 27,000 Civil Partnerships have taken place to date providing around 54,000 people their legal rights at last.