Marriages are more likely to end in divorce than civil partnerships to end in dissolution, recent research by the Office of National Statistics has revealed.

Since the introduction of the civil partnership in 2005, 42,778 gay couples have tied the knot with a civil service in England and Wales. According to ONS findings, only 2.5% of these partnerships dissolve during the first four years, compared to 5.5% of broken marriages.

“Early figures suggest that marriages are more likely to end in divorce than civil partnerships are to end in dissolution,” states the ONS study. However, they believe that it could partly be down to the fact that same-sex couples are most likely to have been together for a longer time than heterosexual couples.

But despite these positive findings, there is a still a shockingly high number of Brits opposed to the legalisation of same-sex marriages.

Although the research found that people's views have become significantly more positive since the 1980s, especially among women and the younger generation, only 45% of Brits agree with homosexual marriages and even fewer, 33%, support same-sex adoption according to the annual British Social Attitudes survey and research by the EU’s Eurobarometer.

The Coalition Government plan to shake up the civil partnership laws in spring next year, by upgrading the rules and policies to offer gay men and women the same marital rights as heterosexual couples.