Unmarried couples living together are staying together longer and having more children than at any time in the past, according to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics. (Name the moral panic about: gays; the rise of feminism; "ossification" American men; other conservative nonsense and so on ad nauseam.)
How reported USA Today, for nearly half of the nearly 13,000 female researchers surveyed, their "first union" lived with an unmarried partner – not married. The survey also found that marriage is "first union" for less than 25 percent of women, down from 39 percent in 1995.
Other findings include:
— In their first union, 48% of women were cohabiting with their male partner, up from 43% in 2002 and 34% in 1995.
– 23% of first unions were marriages, compared to 30% in 2002 and 39% in 1995. The percentage of women cohabiting in their first union increased for all races and ethnic groups except Asian women. Among Hispanics, the percentage increased by 57%; for whites – 43%; for blacks it is 39%.
— 22 months is the median length of first cohabitation, up from 20 months in 2002 and 13 months in 1995.
— 19% of women became pregnant and gave birth in the first year of their first premarital cohabitation.
— Within three years of cohabitation, 40% of women got married; 32% stayed together; 27% broke up.
Researchers attribute this shift to class, education and evolving views of marriage, among other factors:
New data shows that 70% of women without a high school diploma were cohabiting in their first marriage, compared with 47% of women with a bachelor's degree or higher. Among women aged 22-44 with a college degree, their cohabitation was more likely to progress to marriage within a few years (53%), compared with 30% for those who did not complete high school.
"Here we see the emergence of children in cohabiting unions of the working class and the poor." [sociologist Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore] speaks. "They have high standards for marriage and don't think they can meet them at the moment, but increasingly this is not stopping them from having a child. Having children in cohabiting unions is much more common among all but college students. educated."
The study also found that for many couples, cohabitation is often the first step toward marriage, so don't post your think piece online. "death" institutions for now. (However, the report also found that a growing number of adults are entering into long-term cohabitation as an alternative to marriage, so perhaps keep a copy on your external hard drive.)
Arizona State University sociologist Sarah Hayford sums up the federal study's findings nicely: “They're complex.
"It appears that cohabiting unions play different roles for different people." she says.
Fast Not getting married is a new marriage first appeared on Salon.com.
