Cohabitation Facts You Need to Know

No one wants to suffer the heartache of a broken relationship, whether it is a divorce or the dissolution of a cohabiting situation. While living together may have short-term advantages, it comes at a high long-term cost.

• Living together is considered to be more stressful than being married.
• Just over 50% of first cohabiting couples ever get married.
• In the United States and in the UK, couples who live together are at a greater risk for divorce than non-cohabiting couples.
• Couples who lived together before marriage tend to divorce early in their marriage. If their marriage lasts seven years, then their risk for divorce is the same as couples who didn’t cohabit before marriage.
• Cohabiting couples had a separation rate five times that of married couples and a reconciliation rate that was one-third that of married couples.
• Cohabiting couples are more likely to experience infidelity.
• Compared to those planning to marry, those cohabiting have an overall poorer relationship quality. They tend to have more fighting and violence and less reported happiness.
• Cohabiting couples earn less money and are less wealthy than their married peers later in life.
• Compared to married individuals, those cohabiting have higher levels of depression and substance abuse.

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