by Rachel Sheffield (@RachelSheffiel2)
Marriage rates continue to decline, with every succeeding generation seeing lower marriage rates than the previous one. In a new report by Delano Squires and myself, Crossroads: American Family Life at the Intersection of Tradition and Modernity, we note that marriage used to be a common part of young adulthood, but that is no longer the case. Given the trends, researchers project that roughly one-third of Gen Zers will have never married by age 45 and may never marry at all.
But is part of the reason for the decline in marriage because more couples are just opting to live together instead of getting married? And is living together outside of marriage similar in stability and quality to marriage?
Cohabitation has certainly become much more common, as the following chart from our report illustrates. In 1967, fewer than 1% of all people residing with a partner were unmarried, while in 2023 that number had grown to more than 13 percent. More adults today between the ages of 18 and 44 have ever cohabited than have ever been married.
