Data blog: Ratio of male to female civil partnerships

Looking at some recent releases of datasets, I noticed one for the number of civil partnerships between 2006 and 2011 by London Borough. I noticed that in Tower Hamlets, there seemed to be far more civil partnerships between men than there were between women, as shown in the table below:

	Men	Women
2006	123	13
2007	62	12
2008	53	9
2009	49	3
2010	47	8
2011	49	8

I wondered if this was the case across the UK: whether more gay men than gay women entered into civil partnerships. Between 2006 and 2011 28,000 male civil partnerships have been registered in the UK, compared to 23,400 female partnerships. So, more men do enter civil partnerships than women. However, the ratio in the UK  is 1:1.2, or 20% more male partnerships than female partnerships.

In Tower Hamlets the ratio is 1:7.2, far and away the highest ration in London. What is it about Tower Hamlets that means so few women enter civil partnerships? I don't know the answer, but it's a very interesting question.