Introduction
No family change has come to the fore in modern times more dramatically, and with such rapidity, as heterosexual cohabitation outside of marriage. Within three decades in most advanced nations the practice of non-marital cohabitation has shifted from being a widely eschewed and even illegal practice to one which, increasingly, is viewed as a normal part of the life course and a necessary prelude to, or even substitute for, marriage. In America before 1970, for example, cohabitation was uncommon, a deviant and unlawful practice found only among people at the margins of our society. Since 1970 the number of Americans living together outside of marriage has increased more than 1,000 percent, with such couples now making up about ten percent of all couples.
What does this trend mean for the future of marriage and the wellbeing of children? How should we respond to this striking social development, as individuals and together as a society? In seeking information and answers to cohabitation questions it is useful to look abroad. The practice of cohabitation in many other developed nations is longer established and far more common than in the United States, as are certain characteristic legal and public policy responses. In Sweden, for example, around 30 percent of all couples are cohabiting, and “domestic partnership” legislation has been on the books for several decades. What is done elsewhere does not always have relevance to our own situation; among developed nations, the culture of the United States is in some respects unique. Nevertheless, there are many commonalities in advanced societies and on an issue like cohabitation, where we have such limited knowledge, all sources of new information warrant close investigation.
In this brief analysis, drawing on the best and latest empirical data, I shall review the reasons for the swift rise of non-marital cohabitation, discuss its practice in a number of advanced Western nations, analyze its social consequences to the best of our current knowledge, especially for child wellbeing, and discuss reasonable public-policy responses. The nations specifically included in the analysis, in addition to the United States, are the major nations of Western Europe and Scandinavia—Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom—together with Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These nations harbor important data, experiences, and scholarly documentation that can be helpful for better understanding the cohabitation situation in the United States, particularly the likely consequences and what the best public responses might be.