England and Wales stats out for gay civil partnerships

From 21 December last year, the first day civil partnerships were permitted In England and Wales, until the end of last month, there were 3,648 civil partnership ceremonies. As you would imagine, significant numbers took place in Brighton and Hove and various parts of London (Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, etc) with other popular areas all being in the south-east, with the exception of Devon which also seems to figure prominently; is this the preponderance of naval personnel (just askin'...) or is there some other factor I'm not aware of? I am, however, somewhat surprised that Manchester does not rate a mention; I wonder if it is social constraints 'oop north'?