The QUEEN and the Duke of Edinburgh's platinum wedding anniversary is a rare milestone - with the monarch sending almost 26,000 less cards to couples marking their 70th anniversary than those who reached their 60th.

The couple will celebrate their anniversary next week, on Monday, November 20, and we're keen to know if there are any couples in Worcestershire whose marriages have lasted a similar seven decades?

This year so far, just 1,260 couples have received a congratulatory platinum wedding anniversary message through the post from Buckingham Palace, while 27,255 received cards for their diamond anniversary.

Around 16 per cent of couples in England and Wales reach their diamond wedding anniversary of 60 years, but a 70th wedding anniversary is an even more unusual occurrence.

This is because the Office for National Statistics estimates that those who make it to their 60th anniversary only have an average of six months left together.

"A very small proportion of marriages make it past (the diamond wedding anniversary)," an ONS spokeswoman said.

You can tell how rare the anniversary is by the number of messages sent by the Queen herself.

In 2016, the Queen sent 29,339 cards for 60th anniversaries, 3,221 messages for 65th anniversaries, and 1,407 congratulations for 70th anniversaries, to those who applied.

The figures from Buckingham Palace include couples in Realms and UK Overseas Territories but not those in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The Queen's congratulatory messages, organised by the Palace's Anniversaries Office, consist of a card with a personalised message, a gold tassel and a royal crest inside, and a photograph of the monarch on the front. They come in a special envelope.

Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten were one of more than 401,000 couples who married in England and Wales in 1947.

Seven decades on, the marriage rate has dropped to around 250,000 a year.

There were 252,222 marriages in England and Wales - 247,372 opposite sex marriages and 4,850 same sex marriages - in 2014 - the year gay marriage was legalised.

In 1947, there were 401,210 marriages but Elizabeth and Philip were one of 27,395 couples who chose to marry in chilly November - the third most unpopular month that year.

The number of divorces have also gone up.

Only 7 per cent of people who married in 1947 were divorcees. But nearly 70 years later, 22 per cent of all people who married in 2014 were divorcees.

Office for National Statistics data analysed by the Press Association shows that there were more than 107,000 (107,071) divorces in 2016 - 68 per cent more than in 1947 when there were just 60,254 divorces.

Anniversary and birthday messages - for 100th and 105th birthdays and every year thereafter - from the Queen have to be applied for in advance online via apply.royal.gov.uk or by post using forms found at royal.uk/anniversary-messages-0

If you know of any couples celebrating their platinum anniversary this year, please contact ak@worcesternews.co.uk or call 01905 742256