obtain a net boost to their
household incomes.
Among adults who live
without opposite-sex
partners, differing household
composition helps to explain
why those with college
degrees typically gain an
economic boost from
cohabitation but those
without college degrees do
not. Most of these adults live
with others, such as their own
parents, their children or
roommates. The collegeeducated without oppositesex partners are more likely
to live alone (44% to 20%).
They are less likely to live
with other family members
who may supply some of the
household income—income
that may be lost in a
transition to cohabitation.
A voluminous body of social
science research shows that
marriage is associated with a
variety of benefits for adults.
In the words of one
researcher: “For well over a
JOY FEELINGS
century, researchers have
known that married people
are generally better off than
their unmarried counterparts”
(Nock, 2005). Yet in recent
decades marriage rates have
declined—particularly among
less educated adults—as
cohabitation rates have
increased.
It also would seem that
cohabitation would be
associated with greater
economic well-being than
living without a partner
because of the economies of
scale achieved by combining
two households. Yet adults
without college degrees who
cohabit are no better off than
those who live without
opposite-sex partners.
The findings in this report
suggest that cohabitation
plays a different role in the
lives of adults with and
without college degrees. For
the most educated, living as
an unmarried couple typically