Marriage can wait in Doncaster as more than 40,000 residents live with partners unmarried
Doncaster has been named one of the leading Yorkshire locations where couples are most likely to live together without getting married, with more than one in four partnered residents in an unmarried cohabiting relationship.
New research reveals that Doncaster ranks 21st out of 59 locations studied across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, ahead of Sheffield, York and Bradford.
A ranking by Premier Carriage Wedding Cars analysed Census 2021 data to identify where people are most likely to live with a partner without being married or in a registered civil partnership.
Doncaster takes 21st place, with 27.62% of partnered residents living together without being married or civil-partnered.
The borough recorded 40,248 cohabiting residents, compared with 105,485 married or civil-partnered residents living with a partner.
That means more than one in four people living with a partner in Doncaster were doing so without being legally married or civil-partnered at the time of the census.
Doncaster also ranks ahead of several other Yorkshire locations.
In neighbouring Sheffield, 27.30% of partnered residents were cohabiting, slightly below Doncaster's figure.
The difference becomes more noticeable when compared with York, where 25.95% of residents living with a partner were unmarried.
Bradford records an even lower proportion at 21.27%, meaning Doncaster's cohabiting share is more than six percentage points higher.
However, Doncaster falls just behind Wakefield, where 28.29% of partnered residents were cohabiting, and Leeds, where the figure stands at 28.35%.
Kingston upon Hull leads Yorkshire's selected locations, taking second place in the overall ranking at 35.69%.
The 10 places where couples are most likely to live together without marrying
Norwich - 37.49%
Kingston upon Hull - 35.69%
Brighton and Hove - 35.30%
Salford - 34.94%
Bristol - 34.92%
Lincoln - 34.85%
Manchester - 32.39%
Nottingham - 31.23%
Portsmouth - 30.71%
Liverpool - 30.48%
Norwich leads the ranking, with 37.49% of partnered residents living together without being married or civil-partnered, followed by Hull and Brighton and Hove.
Meanwhile, London ranks 37th at 24.86%, almost three percentage points below Doncaster.
At the opposite end of the study, Newry records the lowest cohabiting share at 12.86%, based on figures for the wider Newry, Mourne and Down council area.