to cohabit as those with
college degrees.
A new Pew Research Center
analysis of census data
suggests that less-educated
adults are less likely to
realize the economic benefits
associated with cohabitation.
The typical college-educated
cohabiter is at least as well
off as a comparably educated
married adult and better off
than an adult without an
opposite-sex partner. By
contrast, a cohabiter without
a college degree typically is
worse off than a comparably
educated married adult and
no better off economically
than an adult without an
opposite-sex partner. (Most
adults without opposite-sex
partners live with other adults
or children.)
Among the 30- to 44-year-old
U.S. adults who are the focus
of this report, 7% lived with
an opposite-sex partner in
2009, according to census
JOY FEELINGS
data. The share is higher
among adults without a
college education (8%) than
among those with college
degrees (4%).
The proportion of adults
who ever have cohabited is
much larger than the share
currently cohabiting, and it
has grown to become a
majority in recent decades,
according to data from the
National Survey of Family
Growth. Among women ages
19-44, for example, 58% had
ever lived with an oppositesex unmarried partner in
2006-2008, up from 33%
among a comparable group in
1987 (National Center for
Marriage and Family
Research, 2010).
This report finds that greater
economic well-being is
associated with cohabitation
for adults with college
degrees, but not for those
without college degrees. The
measurement used for
economic well-being is