In Colorado and across the country, the percentage of traditional families dropped in the 1990s as the share of nontraditional households increased. Most of the people living together in Colorado dwell in the Denver metro area, but some mountain communities have the highest concentrations of unmarried partners. The highest is in San Miguel County, in the southwestern part of the state, where people living together make up 9 percent of households. Eleven of the 50 households in Ophir, a hamlet near Telluride, were made up of unmarried partners in 2000, the census shows. Cohabitation has tenuously been accepted as a social norm, said Dorian Solot, director of the Boston-based Alternative to Marriage Project.
Some couples say they have no choice but to live together.
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