Cohabitation Becomes Mainstream Around the World

6-12-2008

An analysis of cohabitation, marriage and divorce data from 13 countries, including the United States, shows living together has become mainstream, USA Today reported.

The National Marriage Project study of a sampling of Western European and Scandinavian nations, Australia, Canada and New Zealand found 15 percent to 30 percent of couples live together, compared with about 10 percent in the United States.

A previous study by the same group showed that since 1970, the number of Americans living together has increased from about 500,000 heterosexual couples to more than 5 million. In the United States from 1995 to 2005, the marriage rate declined almost 20 percent. the rest image