Cohabitation

Overview

About Cohabitation

Cohabitation is generally described as two people living together in a sexual relationship without the commitment of marriage.  It is currently a popular and growing trend in the United States as evidenced by the U.S. Census reports.  In 1996 the Census showed 3.7% of households with cohabitating couples compared with 9.1% in the 2023 report.¹ 

 There are many different reasons that people give for living together without being married. Casper and Bianche in 2002 classified four different types of cohabitation: (a) alternative to marriage, (b) precursor to marriage, (c) trial marriage, and (d) coresidential dating.² Other authors have increased the types to include things like “as a stage in marriage” and “as an alternative to being single.”³  

Does the reason for cohabitating make a difference? According to Scott Stanley and Galena Rhoades it does. In their 2023 Publication: What’s the Plan? Cohabitation, Engagement, Divorce, the winning reason for cohabiting is “to spend more time together.” Those who chose the lifestyle for financial reasons or to test the relationship were more likely to experience break-up. The timing was also important. Those who became engaged prior to living together experienced less divorce than those whose relationships had not reached that degree of commitment.⁶ 

Cohabitation is taking place in teen and adult couples of all ages, and the trend is increasing among all age groups, while marriage is declining. The fastest increase in cohabitation is seen in the over age 65yrs group.¹ Consider the widow of a disabled veteran who would like to re-marry but will lose her pension if she does. In the age of Viagra-like drugs, the children of the 60s may return to their free love mindset and choose to “shack up” once again. 

Unlike the over 65yrs group, the younger age ranges may bring children into their cohabitating households. Madison’s story is not unusual. She and Trenton had dated throughout high school, but Madison was considering breaking up and heading toward a military career. At this point in the relationship the pregnancy test turned positive. Abortion was not a consideration for Madison, but how could she marry the man who she was about to leave for her own career? Trenton accepted responsibility for his part of the pregnancy and took a full-time job. Madison herself was the child of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy that ended in her parents marrying for 19 years until her high school graduation when they divorced. Trenton came from the same circumstances, except that his parents’ marriage remained stable. Madison and Trenton moved in together and shared the pregnancy, that became high risk. After their son was born, Trenton proposed to Madison who now believed that Trenton was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with and they soon married.  However, two other couples from Madison’s high school graduating class in similar situations did not end up marrying but rather breaking up and co-parenting from separate households. Children born with cohabiting parents see their parents break up more often than children born of married parents.⁴ 

Cohabitation does not always bring the biological parents of a child together. Sometimes cohabitation follows a failed marriage and brings another non-biological adult to the household. the most common cohabiting arrangement is a biological mother and a male partner.⁴ Research shows that cohabiting stepfathers spend less time actively engaged with young children then do married stepfathers.⁵ 

Cohabiting parent families are also more complex than married parent families. Children in cohabiting stepfamilies not only live with stepparents, but 37 percent live with step or half siblings. Cohabiting parent families more often include half or step siblings than do married parent families. And young children in cohabiting stepfamilies have more negative indicators of child wellbeing.⁴ 

Medical Institute researchers having reviewed the literature and studies on cohabitation would like to invite you to explore this section of our website in detail. We have joined Brad Wilcox in concluding that the evidence points to the best conclusion for healthy relationships is to Get Married (link to his book on reference page) 

Last updated on May 7, 2026

¹Jagadeesh Gokhale, February 18, 2025, Change in American Families: Favoring Cohabitation over Marriage | Penn Wharton Budget Model
²Casper LM, Bianchi SM. Continuity and change in the American family. Sage; Thousand Oaks, CA: 2002. [Google Scholar]
³Heuveline P, Timberlake JM. The Role of Cohabitation in Family Formation: The United States in Comparative Perspective. J Marriage Fam. 2004 Dec 1;66(5):1214-1230. doi: 10.1111/j.0022-2445.2004.00088.x. PMID: 24563549; PMCID: PMC3928685.
⁴Manning WD. Cohabitation and Child Wellbeing. Future Child. 2015 Fall;25(2):51-66. doi: 10.1353/foc.2015.0012. PMID: 26929590; PMCID: PMC4768758.
⁵Carlson, M.J. and Berger, L.M., 2013. What kids get from parents: Packages of parental involvement across complex family forms. Social Service Review, 87(2), pp.213-249.
⁶Stanley S. and Rhoads G., What’s the Plan? Cohabitation, Engagement, and Divorce, 2023. https://ifstudies.org/report-brief/whats-the-plan-cohabitation-engagement-and-divorce