For more than three decades the number of marriages ending in divorce has risen inexorably. That, along with the sharp decline in the numbers getting married, has resulted in a panic that marriage is a defunct institution.

But an overall fall in the divorce rate for the third year in a row makes it look like the long-term trend is changing.

There may be a smaller number of those choosing to tie the knot, but when they do they are more determined to make it last, it seems.

A rare piece of fresh thinking on the subject of marriage published earlier this year pre-empted yesterday's data and concluded that the future is very bright indeed for matrimony.

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Second Thoughts on the Family by Anastasia de Waal, of the right-wing think-tank Civitas, said that with little social pressure to get married these days, those who do marry really mean it. They are older and have probably already lived together, so are less likely to encounter any nasty surprises in the behaviour or character of their spouse. If they do have problems, they are more mature and able to cope.

She singles out their high expectations of where they should be financially before they marry as the most significant new trend. Young people are happy to wait until they can afford to own a home and have a steady well-paid job before they get married.

“When you look at who is married and getting married today, you should be very optimistic indeed that marriage will survive,” Ms de Vaal said yesterday. “Marriage is a reflection of the stability a couple have achieved, not a potential generator of stability.”

So if financial stability is playing such an important role, what impact will the credit crunch have?

Some divorce lawyers were quick to blame the downturn for their business drying up yesterday saying that, along with record settlements for ex-wives, was leading to people suffering in silence. Certainly divorce is an expensive business, with the average cost of ending a marriage in the courts around £13,000. Then there is invariably the need to sell the family home to buy two smaller properties. With house prices in a tailspin that is not a tantalising prospect.

With the credit crunch only now starting to bite and a decline in divorce that started in 2005, it is too soon to draw the conclusion that people are too skint to part.

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