A survey of Muslims has revealed that the overwhelming majority believe that, ideally, Muslims should be married by the age of 25.

The survey was carried out by SingleMuslim.com, a leading internet-based matrimonial service for the Muslim community.

Results show that the Muslim community is bucking the UK trend, where more and more people are choosing to marry later in life, with many couples opting to marry in their thirties.

When asked to state a preference, 15.37% of respondents said that the ideal marriage age is 20. 56.04% said 25, and 22.81% said 30.

Over 70% of SingleMuslim.com members would therefore expect to be married before their 25th birthday, and over 94% would expect to be married before they turned 30.

SingleMuslim.com's Managing Director, Adeem Younis, said: "This isn't just a young person's survey. Our membership encompasses a wide range of demographics and age groups, from 18-year-olds right up to those in their sixties, so it's interesting to see that the results overwhelmingly favour getting married before the age of 25."

Fewer than 6% of respondents believe that Muslims should ideally marry after the age of 30. Adeem Younis thinks this is more for social and family, rather than ageist, reasons.

He added: "Finding a marriage partner is very important within the our faith, marriage is an integral part of Islam and is required to truly complete and sustain your faith.

"I think that many Muslims also see marrying comparatively young as a distinct advantage in terms of starting a family, settling down and building a tightly knit family unit."

"I don't think that our members are necessarily against marrying when they're older – some of our most recent success stories have been couples who have married in their thirties or forties.

"I don't think there is such thing as the 'right' time to get married – it obviously comes down to personal preference, circumstance and lifestyle – but there seems to be agreement across our membership that marrying young is good."

A total of 4,000 Muslims were polled online.