'Cohabitation' is an emotional and physical
intimate relationship which includes a common living place and which exists without legal or religious sanction.
Description
Several common reasons that lead couples to decide to live together include: wanting to test compatibility or establish financial security before marrying, a desire to live as married when
same-sex,
interracial, or
interreligious marriages are not legal or permitted, living with someone before marriage as a way to avoid
divorce, a way for
polygamists to avoid anti-polygamy laws, a way to avoid the higher income taxes paid by some two-income married couples (in the United States), and seeing little difference between the commitment to live together and the commitment to marriage.
Some couples prefer cohabitation because it does not legally commit them for an extended period of time, and because it is easier to establish and dissolve. In some countries (such as
Scotland) and some states in the
United States, such cohabitations can be viewed legally as
common-law marriages, either after the duration of a specified period or the birth of a child of the couple, or if the couple consider one another as husband and wife and behave accordingly. (This helps provide the surviving partner a legal basis for inheriting the deceased's belongings in the event of the death of their cohabiting partner.)
Today, cohabitation is a common pattern among younger people in the Western world, especially those who desire
marriage but whose financial situation temporarily precludes it, or wish to prepare for what married life will be like before actually getting married. More and more couples choose to have long term relationships without marriage, and co-habitate as a permanent arrangement.
Opposition
Traditionally in the
Western world, a man and a woman who lived together without being married were socially shunned and potentially persecuted by law. In some jurisdictions, cohabitation was illegal until quite recently. Other jurisdictions have created a
Common-law marriage status when two people of the opposite sex live together for a prescribed period of time.
'Opposition to cohabitation' comes mainly from conservative religious and family ethics groups. Religious arguments aside, opponents to cohabitation usually argue that living together (as opposed to marriage) is unstable and hence harmful for both partners, as well as for the children (if there are such). According to one argument, the total and unconditional commitment of marriage strengthens a couple's bond and makes the partners feel more secure, relaxed, and happier than those that have chosen to 'test the waters'.
[1] Opponents of cohabitation commonly cite statistics that indicate that couples who have lived together before marriage are more likely to divorce, and that unhappiness, ill health, poverty and domestic violence are more common in unmarried couples than in married ones.
[2]
Cohabitation advocates in turn cite research that either disproves these claims or indicates that the statistical differences are due to other factors than the fact of cohabitation itself.
[3]
Cohabitation worldwide
United States
Statistics
In some States of the United States, there is no legal registration or definition of cohabitation, so demographers have developed various methods of identifying cohabitation and measuring its prevalence. Most important of these is the Census Bureau, which currently describes an "unmarried partner" as "A person age 15 years and over, who is not related to the householder, who shares living quarters, and who has a close personal relationship with the householder."
[4] Before 1995, the Bureau euphemistically identified any "unrelated" opposite-sex couple living with no other adults as
POSSLQs, or Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters.
[5], and they still report these numbers to show historical trends. However, such measures should be taken loosely, as researchers report that cohabitation often does not have clear start and end dates, as people move in and out of each other's homes and sometimes do not agree on the definition of their living arrangement at a particular moment in time.
[6]
As of 2001, in the United States 8.2% of couples were cohabiting.
[7]
In 2005, the U.S.
Census Bureau reported 4.85 million cohabiting couples, up more than 1,000 percent from 1960, when there were 439,000 such couples. A 2000 study found that more than half of newlyweds lived together, at least briefly, before walking down the aisle.
The cohabiting population, although inclusive of all ages, is mainly made up of those between the ages of 25 and 34
[8].
Legal status
Some places, including the state of California, have laws that recognize cohabiting couples as "
domestic partners". In California, such couples are defined as people who "have chosen to share one another's lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring," including having a "common residence."
[9] This recognition led to the creation of a
"Domestic Partners Registry", which is available to same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples in which at least one of the partners is age 62 or older, granting them limited legal recognition and some rights similar to those of married couples.
Decades ago, it was illegal in every state for adult lovers to live together without being married. Today, on the other hand, just seven (7) states (North Carolina, Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, Florida, Idaho and Michigan) still criminalize cohabitation by opposite-sex couples, although anti-cohabitation laws are generally not enforced.
[10] Many legal scholars believe that in light of in ''
Lawrence v. Texas'',
539 U.S. 558 (2003) such laws making cohabitation illegal are unconstitutional (North Carolina Superior Court judge Benjamin Alford has struck down the North Carolina law on that basis).
[11]
Europe
★ In
Denmark,
Norway and
Sweden, cohabitation is very common; roughly 50% of all children are born into families of unmarried couples, whereas the same figure for several other
Western European countries is roughly 10%.
★ In late 2005, 21% of families in
Finland consisted of cohabitating couples (all age groups). Of couples with children, 18% were cohabitating
[12]. Of ages 18 and above in 2003, 13.4% were cohabitating
[13]. Generally, cohabitation amongst Finns is most common for people under 30. Legal obstacles for cohabitation were removed in 1926 in a reform of the Finnish
penal code, while the phenomenon was socially accepted much later on among non-Christian Finns.
★ In the
UK, 25% of children are now born to cohabiting parents.
★ In
France, 17.5% of couples were cohabiting as of 1999.
Middle East
★ The cohabitation rate in
Israel is less than 3% of all couples, compared to 8%, on average, in
West European countries.
[1]
★ Cohabitation is illegal according to Islamic law, with one exception: sexual relations between a female slave and a male master are allowed.
[14][15]
Asia
★ In India, cohabitation is generally taboo. Increasingly large numbers of young couples in big cities prefer it. As in other places, people with conservative religious views are opposed to it.
★ In
Japan, according to M. Iwasawa at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, less than 3% of females between 25-29 are currently cohabiting, but more than 1 in 5 have had some experience of an unmarried partnership, including cohabitation.
★ In the
Philippines, around 2.4 million Filipinos (18% of population) were cohabitating as of 2004 . The vast majority of them are between the ages of 20-24. Poverty was often the main factor in decision to cohabitate.
[16]
Pacific
★ In
Australia, 22% of couples were cohabiting as of 2005. See
Australian Bureau of Statistics.
★ In
New Zealand, 18.3% of couples were cohabiting as of 2001.
North America - other
★ In
Canada, 16.0% of couples were cohabiting as of 2001 (29.8.% in Quebec, and 11.7% in the other provinces).
★ In
Mexico, 18.7% of couples were cohabiting as of 2000.
See also
★
Family
★
★
Family law
★
Child
★
★
Illegitimacy
★
Interpersonal relationship and
Intimate relationship
★
★
Common-law marriage
★
★
Pilegesh
★
★
Divorce
★
★
Domestic partnership
★
★
Marriage
★
POSSLQ
★
Marriage gap
★
Living Apart Together
References
1. Why Not Take Her for a Test Drive?
2. Are there reasons why I shouldn't move in with my boyfriend?
3. The Experts Speak. On the website of the ''Alternatives to marriage project''.
4. See "Household Type and Relationship".
5. See "Current Population Survey (CPS) - Definitions and Explanations"
6. Manning, Wendy D. and Pamela J. Smock. 2005. "Measuring and Modeling Cohabitation: New Perspectives from Qualitative Data." Journal of Marriage and Family 67(4):989-1002.
7. Anne-Marie Ambert: ''Cohabitation and Marriage: How Are They Related?''. The Vanier Institute of the Family, Fall 2005)
8. ''Cohabitation is replacing dating'' USA Today 7/17/2005
9. See California Family Code Section 297.
10. http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/02/022807virginia.htm]
11. See "Judge strikes down law banning cohabitation" and "N.C. law banning cohabitation struck down".
12.
The Finnish population structure of 2005 at Statistics Finland (Finnish/Swedish)
13. Elected MPs and candidates by family type in 2003 at Statistics Finland (English)
14. See commentary on verses : Vol. 3, notes 7-1, p. 241; 2000, Islamic Publications
15. Tafsir ibn Kathir 4:24
16. http://www.gmanews.tv/wedding/tomarryornot.html
External links
★
Alternatives to marriage project
★
Parul Kumar examines the legal status of cohabitees in relation to the treatment in UK
★
Pilegesh.org Blog Pilegesh relationships - cohabitation according to Judaism
★
One Plus One
★
Married or not
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