An increasing number of middle-aged men are opting to get married to women who are still in their child-bearing years, a new study has revealed. The number of men aged 45-49 who wed women aged 30-34 increased by six per cent at the end of 2010, the figures from the Office for National Statistics showed. Overall, it apparently shows that marriage - long thought to be a dying institution - is once again becoming popular. The number of people marrying in England and Wales rose by 3.7 per cent to 241,000 in 2010, the Daily Express reported. Fiona Wood, of family law firm Pannone, asserted that the report revealed an increase in marriages where at least one spouse who had tied the knot before. \"It could be connected to the increase in the number of men aged in their late 40s who choose to marry. They might have been through a divorce but the majority do not seem to be put off the idea of marriage,\" she said.