Ways to be Unmarried
| Living Single |
| Living Together |
| GLBT |
| Polyamory |
| MarriageFree & Boycott |
| Parents & Children |
| Commitment Ceremonies |
| Domestic Partner Benefits |
Syndicate
| Statistics |
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Below you'll find current statistics about: Also, visit our Experts Speak page to read recent comments on unmarried lives by sociologists, demographers, historians, and other experts. Note that many of the statistics on the page are from the 2000 Census, the most recent, most accurate statistics available on unmarried partner households. Living Together (a.k.a. cohabitation, or unmarried partner households):
According to the 2000 Census, there are currently about 11 million people living with an unmarried partner in the U.S. This includes both same-sex and different-sex couples.
41% of American women ages 15-44 have cohabited (lived with an unmarried different-sex partner) at some point. This includes 9% of women ages 15-19, 38% of women ages 20-24, 49% of women ages 25-29, 51% of women ages 30-34, 50% of women ages 35-39, and 43% of women ages 40-44.
The number of unmarried couples living together increased 72% between 1990 and 2000.
The number of unmarried couples living together has increased tenfold between 1960 and 2000. Living Alone
As of 2000, the most common household type in the U.S. is people living alone. 27 million American households consist of a person living alone, compared to 25 million households with a husband, wife, and child.
More than one in four American households consist of an adult living alone (25.8%). Unmarried childbearing and parenting:
41% of unmarried partner households have children under 18 living in them.
33% of all births are to unmarried women.
41% of first births to unmarried women are actually babies born to cohabiting couples, not "single" women.
About two-fifths of children are expected to live in a cohabiting household at some point. More about unmarried different-sex couples:
55% of different-sex cohabitors get married within 5 years of moving in together. 40% break up within that same time period. About 10% remain in an unmarried relationship five years or longer.
About 20% of all male-female cohabitors, or 1.6 million people, have been living together for more than five years. There is little known about these long-term unmarrieds because no research has focused on this subgroup.
About 75% of cohabitors say they plan to marry their partners (about 6.2 million people).
The majority of couples marrying today have lived together first (53% of women's first marriages are preceded by cohabitation).
In 1995, 24% of women ages 25-34 were cohabiting, compared to 22% of women ages 35-39, and 15% for women 40-44. In every age category, the percentages have increased since 1987. General information on marital status: In 2006, new statistics from a large national sample show that the majority (50.3%) of adults are unmarried! – Tom Coleman, Column One, 8/21/06 A February, 2006 report by Women’s Voices, Women Vote found that “unmarried people are under-represented in the electorate. … In 2004, 69% of unmarried women were registered to vote, compared with 78% of married women, and only 59% of unmarried women voted, compared to 71% of married women. Throughout the nation, nearly 20 million unmarried women did not vote.”
The average American spends the majority of his or her life unmarried.
44% of American adults are currently unmarried (2000 data). This number has been rising steadily: in 1970 36% of Americans were unmarried; in 1980 39% of Americans were unmarried; in 1990 41%of Americans were unmarried.
In 2000, 31% of men and 25% of women ages 15 and over (the way the Census counts adults) had never married.
There are 100 million single and unmarried adults in the U.S. (some living alone, some living with partners, families, roommates, etc.).
Median Age at First Marriage:
Women: - Age data from the U. S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports (2000), "Estimated Age at First Marriage"
Marital status of American adults:
Women: - Marital status data for 1890 - 1970 from U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Abstracts of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970,Series A 160-171, 1989. Data for 1980 -2000 from U.S. Census Bureau, MS-1. "Marital Status of the Population 15 Years and Over, by Sex and Race: 1950 to Present." 2001. What people think about unmarried relationships:
In a 1995 Harris poll, 90% of people believe society "should value all types of families."
Only one-quarter of American households consist of what most people think of as a "traditional family": a married couple and their children.
45% of people in their twenties believe the government should not be involved in licensing marriage.
On domestic partner health benefits: At least 9,390 employers in the U.S. offer domestic partner health benefits for their employees. (Human Rights Campaign website, August 2006) Of these, 95% offer the benefits to both same-sex and different-sex companies. (Human Rights Campaign, State of the Workplace 2004) The more successful the company, the greater the chance that it will offer DP benefits. Fifty-one percent of Fortune 500 companies offer DP health benefits, as do 80% of the Fortune 50. (Human Rights Campaign, State of the Workplace 2006) A 2005 Hewitt Associates study revealed that the majority of employers experience a total benefits cost increase of less than 1%. (Human Rights Campaign, State of the Workplace 2006)
More than 1/4 of Americans work for an employer that offers domestic partner benefits.
As of May 2004, over 7,300 employers offered domestic partner health insurance to their employees.
90% of employers that offer domestic partner benefits make them available to both same-sex and different-sex couples.
43% of people in their twenties believe that cohabiting couples should receive the same benefits as married couples. How We Get Our Numbers We take seriously the accuracy of the information we provide. If you have a question about a source or find data that doesn't match ours, please let us know. For instance, here's why our numbers don't match some other sources about the number of people living with an unmarried partner in the U.S.
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