Gabriel Velasco helped with
the preparation of charts. The
report was number-checked
by Daniel Dockterman, Pew
Research Center research
assistant. The report was
copy-edited by Marcia
Kramer. The Center
appreciates the comments of
outside reviewers Wendy
Manning of Bowling Green
State University and Adam
Thomas of the Brookings
Institution on an earlier draft.
The main data source for this
report is the Census Bureau’s
2009 American Community
Survey, which supplied data
about partnership status and
other individual and
household characteristics for
adults ages 30-44. The
Census Bureau’s Current
Population Survey is the
source of data about longterm trends in the prevalence
of cohabitation. For more
detail, see the Appendix.
TERMINOLOGY
“College-educated” refers to
persons who report that their
highest edu