is an economically
productive way to combine
two incomes and is a step
toward marriage and
childbearing. For adults
without college degrees,
cohabitation is more likely to
be a parallel household
arrangement to marriage—
complete with children—but
at a lower economic level
than married adults enjoy.
This report uses U.S. Census
Bureau data to analyze the
economic and household
circumstances of oppositesex cohabiters ages 30-44 as
well as those of comparably
educated married adults and
adults without opposite-sex
partners. The age range was
chosen because it is a time of
life when most adults have
completed their education,
gone to work and established
their own households.
About 400,000 adults ages
30-44 are partners in samesex unmarried couples,
JOY FEELINGS
according to the 2009
American Community
Survey, compared with 4.2
million who live with a
partner of the opposite sex.
Same-sex couples have
distinctive patterns of
income, education and
household composition. They
have higher median adjusted
incomes ($99,204) than
opposite-sex cohabiters
($54,179), married couples
($70,711) or adults without
partners ($53,399). About
half (48%) are college
graduates, a notably higher
share than for other adults.
Less than a third (31%) live
with children, a lower share
than opposite-sex cohabiters.
The analysis of cohabiting
couples in this report is
restricted to opposite-sex
unmarried partners. The
analysis makes the
assumption that these couples
have the choice to marry or
cohabit, which is not the case
for most same-sex couples.