Cohabitation in the United States

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Cohabitation in the United States is loosely defined as two or more people, [1] in an intimate relationship, who live together and share a common domestic life but are neither joined by marriage nor a civil union. [2]

Contents

Statistics

In most parts of the United States, there is no legal registration or definition of cohabitation, so demographers have developed various methods of identifying cohabitation and measuring its prevalence. The Census Bureau currently describes an "unmarried partner" as a "person age 15 years and over, who is not related to the householder, who shares living quarters, and who has a close personal relationship with the householder." [3] Before 1995, the Bureau identified any "unrelated" opposite-sex couple living with no other adults as "POSSLQs", or Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters, [4] and the Bureau still reports these numbers to show historical trends. However, such measures should be taken loosely, as researchers report that cohabitation often does not have clear start and end dates, as people move in and out of each other's homes and sometimes do not agree on the definition of their living arrangement at a particular moment. [5]

In 2001, in the United States 8.2% of couples were calculated to be cohabiting, the majority of them in the West Coast and New England/Northeastern United States areas. [6]

In 2005, the Census Bureau reported 4.85 million cohabiting couples, up more than ten times from 1960, when there were 439,000 such couples. The 2002 National Survey of Family Growth found that more than half of all women aged 15 to 44 have lived with an unmarried partner, and that 65% of American couples who did cohabit got married within 5 years. [7]

In 2011, the Census Bureau reported 7.6 million opposite-sex cohabiting couples in the country with a separate report listing the number of cohabiting same-sex couples at 514,735 as of the 2010 Census. [8] [9]

The cohabiting population includes all age groups, but the average cohabiting age group is between 25 and 34. [10]

Stability

In 2003, a study was made of premarital cohabitation of women who are in a monogamous relationship. [11] The study showed "women who are committed to one relationship, who have both premarital sex and cohabit only with the man they eventually marry, have no higher incidence of divorce than women who abstain from premarital sex and cohabitation. For women in this category, premarital sex and cohabitation with their eventual husband are just two more steps in developing a committed, long-term relationship." Teachman's findings report instead that "It is only women who have more than one intimate premarital relationship who have an elevated risk of marital disruption. This effect is strongest for women who have multiple premarital coresidental unions." [12]

A survey, conducted by researchers at the University of Denver (2009), of over 1,000 married men and women in the United States found those who moved in with a lover before engagement or marriage reported significantly lower quality marriages and a greater possibility for splitting up than other couples. [13] About 20 percent of those who cohabited before getting engaged had since suggested divorce – compared with only 12 percent of those who only moved in together after getting engaged and 10 percent who did not cohabit prior to marriage. [13]

Psychologist Dr. Galena Rhoades said: "There might be a subset of people who live together before they got engaged who might have decided to get married really based on other things in their relationship – because they were already living together and less because they really wanted and had decided they wanted a future together. We think some couples who move in together without a clear commitment to marriage may wind up sliding into marriage partly because they are already cohabiting." [13]

A 2001 study of 1,000 adults indicated that people who cohabited experienced a divorce rate 50% higher after marriage than those who did not, though this may be correlation and not cause-and-effect. [14] A subsequent study performed by the National Center for Health Statistics with a sample size of over 12,000 individuals found that there was no significant difference in divorce rate between cohabitating and non-cohabitating individuals. [15]

Children

In 2011, The National Marriage Project reported that about 2⁄3 of children with cohabiting parents would see them break up before they were 12 years old. About 1⁄4 of children of married couples would experience this by age 12. [16] Although the chance of divorce increases for longer marriages in general, the divorce rates are not significantly different for those who cohabit before marriage and those who do not. [17] Overall, cohabitation before marriage does not appear to impact the chances of future marriage dissolution negatively.

White American working-class women are more likely than either non-white working-class American women or European women to raise their children with a succession of live-in boyfriends, with the result that the children may live with, and then see the departure of, multiple men. This behavior seems to be driven primarily by the mothers' financial needs. [18]

IRS regulations [lower-alpha 1] state that they will not grant exemptions for a cohabiting dependent and relatives if cohabitation is illegal in the local jurisdiction. [19]

California

Some places, including the state of California, have laws that recognize cohabiting couples as "domestic partners." This recognition led to the creation of a Domestic Partners Registry, [20] granting them limited legal recognition and some rights similar to those of married couples.

Florida

Although anti-cohabitation laws are often not enforced elsewhere in the country, [2] up through 2016 cohabitants were regularly being charged with misdemeanors in Florida [21] under the state's 1868 law governing "lewd and lascivious behavior". [lower-alpha 2]

On March 22, 2016, the Florida legislature voted to repeal the state's ban on cohabitation. After passing the Senate unanimously, SB 498 passed the House by a vote of 112–5, [22] and governor Rick Scott signed the bill into law on 6 April 2016. [23]

North Carolina

In North Carolina, cohabitation, defined as "the act of two married or unmarried heterosexual or homosexual adults dwelling together continuously and habitually", is grounds for supporting spouse to terminate a court judgment or order of postseparation support or alimony to a dependent spouse. [lower-alpha 3] Although North Carolina's law against opposite-sex cohabitation [lower-alpha 4] was struck down by North Carolina Superior Court Judge Benjamin Alford, the Supreme Court of North Carolina has never had the chance to rule on the issue, so the law's statewide constitutionality remains unclear. [24]

North Dakota

North Dakota's anti-cohabitation law [lower-alpha 5] dates back to 1895, shortly after the state was admitted to the union. Multiple initial attempts to repeal the law failed—at least three times between 1990 and 2007 alone. [25] On April 1, 2003, the North Dakota state Senate voted 26–21 to keep the 113-year-old state law against male-female cohabitation, which outlawed the practice and carried a penalty of up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. At the time, North Dakota's most recent census showed 11,000 unmarried couples of all genders. While some married people occasionally asked county authorities to prosecute their spouses for cohabitation or adultery, [26] the law had not been used to prosecute anyone since 1938. Nevertheless, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled in N.D. Fair Housing Council, Inc. v. Peterson (2001) that "[u]nder the words of the statute, the rules of statutory construction, and the legislative, administrative, and judicial history ... it is not an unlawful discriminatory practice under N.D.C.C. § 14-02.4-12 to refuse to rent to unmarried persons seeking to cohabit." [27]

The law was changed in March 2007; the state House voted 48-41 and the state Senate voted 35–10 in favor of S.B. 2138, [28] which was signed into law by governor John Hoeven, removing the cohabitation statute. [29] [30]

Mississippi

As of 2023, only one state, Mississippi, [31] still has laws on its books against cohabitation which have not been removed or ruled unconstitutional.

Texas

Many legal scholars believe that in light of in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), such laws making cohabitation illegal are unconstitutional (North Carolina Superior Court judge Benjamin Alford struck down the North Carolina law as unconstitutional on that basis). [32]

Utah

The charge of "unlawful cohabitation" was used in the late 19th century to enforce the Edmunds Act, and other federal anti-polygamy laws against the Mormons in the Utah Territory, imprisoning more than 1,300 men. [33] However, incidents of cohabitation by non-polygamists were not charged in that territory at that time. Some modern scholarship suggested the Edmunds Act might be unconstitutional for being in violation of the Free Exercise Clause, [34] although the Supreme Court had repeatedly ruled that neutral laws that happen to impinge on some religious practices are constitutional. [35] On 13 December 2013, US Federal Judge Clark Waddoups ruled in Brown v. Buhman that the portions of Utah's anti-polygamy laws which prohibited multiple cohabitation were unconstitutional, but also allowed Utah to maintain its ban on multiple marriage licenses. [36] [37] [38] This decision was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, thus effectively recriminalizing polygamy as a felony. [39] In 2020, Utah voted to downgrade polygamy from a felony to an infraction, but it remains a felony if force, threats or other abuses are involved. [40]

Virginia

The Supreme Court of Virginia similarly found the commonwealth's (unenforced [41] ) law making fornication (sex between unmarried persons) illegal to be unconstitutional in Martin v. Ziherl .

See also

Related Research Articles

Polygamy is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more than one husband at the same time, it is called polyandry. In sociobiology and zoology, researchers use polygamy in a broad sense to mean any form of multiple mating.

Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increasingly common in Western countries since the late 20th century, being led by changing social views, especially regarding [[marriage and also the children get to chose who they go to

Divorce is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the bonds of matrimony between a married couple under the rule of law of the particular country or state. It can be said to be a legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body. It is the legal process of ending a marriage.

Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, sui iuris marriage, informal marriage, de facto marriage, or marriage by habit and repute, is a marriage that results from the parties' agreement to consider themselves married, followed by cohabitation, rather than through a statutorily defined process. Not all jurisdictions permit common law marriage, but will typically respect the validity of such a marriage lawfully entered in another state or country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Premarital sex</span> Sexual activity before marriage

Premarital sex is sexual activity which is practiced by people before they are married. Premarital sex is considered a sin by a number of religions and also considered a moral issue which is taboo in many cultures. Since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s, it has become accepted by certain liberal movements, especially in Western countries. A 2014 Pew study on global morality found that premarital sex was considered particularly unacceptable in "Muslim Majority Countries", such as Malaysia, Jordan and Pakistan, each having over 90% disapproval, while people in Western European countries were the most accepting, with Spain, Germany, and France expressing less than 10% disapproval.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 United States census</span> 22nd United States national census

The 2000 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 census. This was the twenty-second federal census and was at the time the largest civilly administered peacetime effort in the United States.

Many laws in the history of the United States have addressed marriage and the rights of married people. Common themes addressed by these laws include polygamy, interracial marriage, divorce, and same-sex marriage.

McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184 (1964), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a cohabitation law of Florida, part of the state's anti-miscegenation laws, was unconstitutional. The law prohibited habitual cohabitation by two unmarried people of opposite sex, if one was black and the other was white. The decision overturned Pace v. Alabama (1883), which had declared such statutes constitutional. It did not overturn the related Florida statute that prohibited interracial marriage between whites and blacks. Such laws were declared unconstitutional in 1967 in Loving v. Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marriage law</span> Overview of marriage law worldwide

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Common-law relationships in Manitoba are government-sanctioned relationships available to both same-sex and different-sex unmarried couples in the Canadian province of Manitoba. While not as extensive as the rights and benefits of marriage, these relationships provide some important benefits to unmarried couples. Registration is voluntary; many of the laws apply automatically to any couple in the province after living together for several years.

Polygamy is the practice of having more than one spouse at the same time. Specifically, polygyny is the practice of one man taking more than one wife while polyandry is the practice of one woman taking more than one husband. Polygamy is a common marriage pattern in some parts of the world. In North America, polygamy has not been a culturally normative or legally recognized institution since the continent's colonization by Europeans.

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Common-law marriage, also known as sui juris marriage, informal marriage, marriage by habit and repute, or marriage in fact is a form of irregular marriage that survives only in seven U.S. states and the District of Columbia along with some provisions of military law; plus two other states that recognize domestic common law marriage after the fact for limited purposes.

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Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in North Carolina since October 10, 2014, when a U.S. District Court judge ruled in General Synod of the United Church of Christ v. Cooper that the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples was unconstitutional. Governor Pat McCrory and Attorney General Roy Cooper had acknowledged that a recent ruling in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to hear an appeal in that case established the unconstitutionality of North Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage. State legislators sought without success to intervene in lawsuits to defend the state's ban on same-sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in South Dakota since June 26, 2015 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the U.S. Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry. Attorney General Marty Jackley issued a statement critical of the ruling but said South Dakota is obligated to comply and the state would recognize same-sex marriages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fornication</span> Name for pre-marital sexual intercourse

Fornication is generally consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other. When one or more of the partners having consensual sexual intercourse is married to another person, it is called adultery. John Calvin viewed adultery to be any sexual act that is outside the divine model for sexual intercourse, which includes fornication.

Palimony is the division of financial assets and real property on the termination of a personal live-in relationship wherein the parties are not legally married. The term "palimony" is not a legal or historical term, but rather a colloquial portmanteau of the words pal and alimony. Nevertheless, numerous "secondary" legal sources refer to the term, and attempt to describe its influence and implications upon actual statute law.

Polygamy was outlawed in federal territories by the Edmunds Act, and there are laws against the practice in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Because state laws exist, polygamy is not actively prosecuted at the federal level.

References

  1. ↑ "Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882".
  2. 1 2 Cohabitation Law & Legal Definition. USLegal. Retrieved on October 17, 2012
  3. ↑ See "Household Type and Relationship".
  4. ↑ See "Current Population Survey (CPS) – Definitions and Explanations"
  5. ↑ Manning, Wendy D. and Pamela J. Smock. 2005. "Measuring and Modeling Cohabitation: New Perspectives from Qualitative Data." Journal of Marriage and Family 67(4):989–1002.
  6. ↑ Anne-Marie Ambert: Cohabitation and Marriage: How Are They Related? Archived 2009-10-31 at the Wayback Machine . The Vanier Institute of the Family, Fall 2005
  7. ↑ "Report: Most Couples Living Together Marry". NPR.org. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
  8. ↑ "America's Families and Living Arrangements: 2011, Table UC1". United States Census Bureau. November 2011. Retrieved 2013-12-11.
  9. ↑ "Census Bureau Releases Estimates of Same-Sex Married Couples". United States Census Bureau. September 2011. Retrieved 2013-12-11.
  10. ↑ Cohabitation is replacing dating USA Today 7/17/2005
  11. ↑ Jay Teachman (2003), "Premarital Sex, Premarital Cohabitation, and the Risk of Subsequent Marital Dissolution Among Women", Journal of Marriage and Family 65 (2), 444–455.
  12. ↑ "Premarital Sex, Cohabitation, and Divorce: the Broken Link" (PDF) (Press release). National Council on Family Relations. 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-04-20. Retrieved 2009-06-30.
  13. 1 2 3 "Couples who live together before marriage more likely to get divorced". The Daily Telegraph. London. 2009-07-16.
  14. ↑ Martin, Paige D. (Fall 2001). "Adolescent Premarital Sexual Activity, Cohabitation, and Attitudes Toward Marriage". BNET. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
  15. ↑ Jayson, Sharon (October 14, 2010). "Report: Cohabiting has little effect on marriage success" USA Today. Retrieved on 2/29/2012
  16. ↑ "Why More Parents Are Choosing Cohabitation over Marriage". 2012-06-22. Archived from the original on 2013-05-25. Retrieved 2012-06-28.
  17. ↑ Manning & Cohen (2012) Premarital cohabitation and marital dissolution: An examination of recent marriages. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74, pp 377–387.
  18. ↑ Case, Anne; Deaton, Angus (Spring 2017). "Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st Century". Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. 2017: 397–476. doi:10.1353/eca.2017.0005. PMC   5640267 . PMID   29033460.
  19. ↑ "26 U.S. Code § 152". Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  20. ↑ "Domestic Partners Registry". Archived from the original on 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2009-06-30.
  21. ↑ "FL: Couples Living Together Without Being Married Can Get Arrested".
  22. ↑ Clark, Kristen M. (6 April 2016). "After 148 years, shacking up is legal again in Florida". Miami Herald .
  23. ↑ "Senate Bill 498 (2016) – the Florida Senate".
  24. ↑ "No Shacking Up: Yes, 'Living in Sin' Is Still A Crime". WFMY News. 25 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  25. ↑ "North Dakota rethinks ban on cohabitation". HeraldNet.com. 18 January 2007. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  26. ↑ Boldt, Megan (2003-04-03). "N.D. Law Forbids Unmarried Cohabitation". Midland Reporter-Telegram. Retrieved 2020-11-07.
  27. ↑ "N.D. Fair Housing Council, Inc. v. Peterson". Justia Law. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  28. ↑ Newsroom, W. C. T. (11 February 2007). "North Dakota cohabitation law gets eviction notice". West Central Tribune. Retrieved 2021-12-31.{{cite web}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  29. ↑ Tribune, JONATHAN RIVOLI/Bismarck (28 February 2007). "North Dakota Legislature repeals cohabitation law". Bismarck Tribune. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  30. ↑ "N.D. Anti-Cohabitation Law Repealed". Oklahoman.com. 1 March 2007. Retrieved 2021-12-24.
  31. ↑ Miss. Code 97-29-1
  32. ↑ See "Judge strikes down law banning cohabitation" and "N.C. law banning cohabitation struck down".
  33. ↑ U.S.History.com, Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882.
  34. ↑ "The Practice of Polygamy: Legitimate Free Exercise of Religion or Legitimate Public Menace? Revisiting Reynolds in Light of Modern Constitutional Jurisprudence" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-03-09. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  35. ↑ E.g., Employment Division v. Smith , 494 U.S. 872 (1990).
  36. ↑ Schwartz, John (14 September 2013), "A Law Prohibiting Polygamy is Weakened", The New York Times , retrieved 13 January 2014
  37. ↑ Mears, Bill (14 December 2013), "'Sister Wives' case: Judge strikes down part of Utah polygamy law", CNN.com, CNN , retrieved 13 January 2014
  38. ↑ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (14 December 2013), "Laws on Mormon polygamists lead to win for plural marriage", The Salt Lake Tribune , retrieved 13 January 2014
  39. ↑ "Appeals court restores Utah's polygamy law in 'Sister Wives' case". Reuters. 11 April 2016.
  40. ↑ Hauser, Christine (13 May 2020). "Utah Lowers Penalty for Polygamy, No Longer a Felony". The New York Times.
  41. ↑ Grossman, Joanna (January 25, 2005). "Virginia strikes down state fornication law". CNN.com.

footnotes

  1. ↑ I.R.C. § 152(f)(3)
  2. ↑ S. 798.02, F.S.
  3. ↑ NC Code §50-169
  4. ↑ NC Code §14-184
  5. ↑ N.D.C.C. § 12-22-12

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