Increasing Cohabitation and Decreasing Marriage: Explanations

Abstract

Abstract In most cultures and religions, marriage has long been one of the fundamental building blocks of adult life, offering social recognition, legal stability and financial benefits to spouses and their children. Cohabitation, on the other hand, has traditionally been viewed as the less desirable form of union. It used to be socially stigmatized or even legally prohibited in many countries. Even today, cohabitation generally does not entail the same legal rights and obligations as marriage and is still frowned upon or even illegal in some countries. Nonetheless, during the most recent decades, cohabitation has started to spread in large parts of the world. This chapter reviews some of the reasons behind the surge in popularity of this union type, focusing on macro-, meso-, and micro-level explanations.