Marriage has long been regarded as the bedrock on which society is built but for years it has seemed that marriage itself was on the rocks. In the early 1970s, the heyday for marriage, nearly 0.5m couples tied the knot every year. Now only just over 300,000 do so. At the end of the Sixties, 340,000 couples got hitched for the first time. Now the number is less than half that, just over 160,000. More than a third of children in Britain — 4.5m — are being brought up outside marriage and that proportion is growing. More than 40% of births are out of wedlock.

Marriage has been battered by changes in social attitudes and by government neglect. Not only are there no longer rewards in the tax system for marriage but, particularly at the bottom of the income scale, there are real gains from not being married. The single mother with a boyfriend who occasionally stays the night is better off than her married counterpart. Gordon Brown’s tax credits have exacerbated the problem. And yet, despite it all, marriage is refusing to die. The latest official figures show that the number of marriages has risen for three years in a row, albeit by small amounts.

Our YouGov poll on marriage, published in the magazine today, suggests that this revival could have further to go. Married people tend to be happier than those who are divorced or cohabiting. And by more than two to one, married people think divorce should be made more difficult, a significant shift compared with 20 years ago. Married people, even in their second marriages, overwhelmingly believe the commitment they have made should be for life. Divorce rates have stabilised and there is a chance they will now start to fall. Something may be stirring. One possibility is that the children of divorced parents are determined not to subject their own children to the unhappiness that goes with divorce. It is a welcome shift. Marriage may be making a comeback and, if the research is to be believed, more people will be happier as a result.