"Figure 1: Opposite-sex civil partnerships decreased in the second full year since their initial introduction ","" "Number of civil partnership formations by sex and partnership type, England and Wales, 2005 to 2021 ","" "","" "Notes","1. The first day that couples could form a same-sex partnership was 21 December 2005 and 31 December 2019 for opposite-sex couples in England and Wales. 2. Marriages of same-sex couples could take place in England and Wales from 29 March 2014." "Unit","Number of civil partnerships " "","" "Year","Same-sex Male","Same-sex Female","Opposite-sex " "2005","1228","629","[x]" "2006","9003","5940","[x]" "2007","4371","3558","[x]" "2008","3536","3022","[x]" "2009","2962","2725","[x]" "2010","2868","2936","[x]" "2011","3171","2981","[x]" "2012","3138","3224","[x]" "2013","2673","2973","[x]" "2014","954","729","[x]" "2015","570","291","[x]" "2016","604","286","[x]" "2017","599","309","[x]" "2018","621","335","[x]" "2019","610","384","171" "2020","483","302","7566" "2021","591","448","5692"