Living together leads to marriage for most: 2 in 3 who cohabit tie the knot within 5 years, CDC says

MaryAnne Lopes of Windham, Maine, had no intentions of pulling threads from the nation’s social fabric by living with her then boyfriend, Joe. She just wanted to save some money.

The couple, who celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary on Sunday, moved in together because it was cheaper and because she was living with her parents following a divorce from her first husband. “You try telling my father, the Reverend Dr. Young, I will not be home tonight!” she said, laughing about dates with Joe.

But while Lopes, now 40, considered her protestant minister father’s possible discomfort with overnighters, he raised no objections to her moving in with Joe, and happily presided over the couple’s wedding less than two years later.

According to a new report being issued today by the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most Americans share Lopes’ experience of moving in with a lover before marriage, and most couples — 51 percent according to the CDC data — who do move in together wind up married within three years, just like Lopes. About two-thirds of cohabiters who get married within five years.

The report, “Marriage and Cohabitation in the United States,” shows that more people than ever are living together without being married. And, it also shows that marriage itself is doing just fine, thanks. Contrary to past dogma, the study also shows that there is no longer a meaningful divorce gap between those who live together first and those who didn’t.  Read Article

By Brian Alexander