Seven percent of all U.S. women aged 15 to 44 were cohabiting in 1995, up from 6.4 percent in 1982. Women aged 20 to 24 are most likely to be in an unmarried partnership these days, which is a switch. In 1982, when baby boomers were aged 18 to 36, women aged 25 to 34 were most likely to be cohabiting. Fifteen years ago, young women saw cohabitation as a symbol of sexual freedom. Today, they are more likely to see it as a way to save on living costs, or as a no-obligation trial marriage.
Unmarried partnerships are more unstable than marriages.
Only 10 percent of women aged 15 to 44 reported that their first cohabitation was still intact in 1995, and only 37 percent said that their first partner was their current husband. One-third had dissolved the cohabitation, and 21 percent married their partner and then divorced. The more educated and affluent the woman, the more likely her first cohabitation will become an intact first marriage. Affluent young women are just as likely as women below the poverty line to be cohabiting. Cohabiting women are more likely to have a child than to be childless.