Is Cohabitation Becoming More Popular Than Marriage?

The Office for National Statistics have recently published a survey looking into trends in living arrangements this month and it included some interesting results...

• The number of same-sex couple families has grown by over 50% since 2015
• The number of people living alone has exceeded 8 million, mainly down to increases in women aged 45 to 64 years and men aged 65 to 75 years living alone
• One in four (3.4 million) 20 to 34 year olds are living with parents
• The number of cohabiting couple families has increased by over 25% since 2008, and overtaken the number of couples getting married

So what does this tell us?

Well, this certainly demonstrates that the way people are choosing to build their family is changing. It is good to see diversity and that people are being able to live how they feel appropriate without the pressure to follow traditional ideology.

It is pleasing to see that the number of same-sex couple families has grown. With changes in societal views on same sex relationships and changes in the law, we hope to see an ongoing positive impact going forward.

What is interesting, is the number of people that are living alone, especially within age brackets where we would traditionally have expected people to be married and living with their spouses. Perhaps the rise in the number of divorces has a role to play in these statistics?

It would seem that although married couples are the most common type of family, couples are often opting to cohabit. Perhaps the rising house prices is forcing couples to choose between housing their family and getting married. The same could be said for the number of young people still living at home. Unfortunately, the disparity between wages and the cost of living means people are having to adapt and prioritise.