US CDC Report on Marriage

Reuters brings us news of a report from the US Centers for Disease Control on marriage in the US. It is no surprise that marriage keeps a people together longer than shacking up. Deborah Zabarenko reports.

About 78 percent of marriages lasted five years or more, compared with less than 30 percent of what the CDC called cohabiting unions, or couples living together outside marriage.

Of course, many of the unmarried couples (or one person in the pairing) weren't planning on staying together for the long haul in the first place – which is one reason why they didn't marry. They were living together out of perceived convenience. And while I strongly discourage people from shacking up*, I'd rather people who are going to break up not marry in the first place.

Then there’s this...

One reason cohabitations were shorter-lived than marriages is that 51 percent of couples who lived together made the transition to marriage within three years, CDC said in a statement.

Uhm, well, yeah. That should be taken into account. The comparison should be how long these couples lived together total, and then compare how long the marriage lasted in comparison to people who didn't shack up before marrying. If they were shacking up for seven years and then married, they are still living together - to count that as the "end" is a little misleading. My guess is a lot fewer people stay living together after divorcing – so in that respect, yes, marriage will last longer than shacking up because a given may shack up for three years but then marry and stay married for 25.

Over 40 percent of men and women aged 15-44 were married in 2002 when the interviews were conducted, compared with 9 percent who were living together. The report was based on a nationally representative sample of 12,571 men and women.

I like how 15 year olds are included. Sheesh. I would expect most fifteen years olds don't live with a "sexual partner." But keep these stats in mind when you hear someone say that married households are no longer the majority, implying that shacking up is the norm. Recent studies that have said (or been used to infer) married households are no longer the majority considered homes where one spouse was deployed, away on other business, incarcerated, or hospitalized as "unmarried". Same thing with separation. The fact is, even if married household were not the majority, they would almost be, and every other category combined (singles, shack ups, same-sex, widows, divorced, etc.) would just barely surpass it. And yes, people are waiting longer to marry, which also has an effect on stats – but most people will marry at some point and even many who won't want to marry. People are also living longer as widows or widowers or after divorce than in the days when people died at 65. And every home occupied by someone who is single is counted just the same as a home with a married couple – so that while there may be 10 homes occupied by singles and 7 occupied by a married couple in any given neighborhood, the married add up to 14 adults compared to the singles adding up to 10.

There were some other findings of note. Read about them by clicking below.

[Much more after the jump.]

The odds of staying together 10 years or longer in a first marriage are better for couples of the same racial origin, the report found.

I chalk this one more up to similar backgrounds and family support. I know "interracial" couples (some fairly well) and the ones I know have great and enduring marriages because they have shared values and goals and similar backgrounds. The minister who performed my wedding is in such a marriage.

Nearly 80 percent of couples who have their first child at least eight months after their first marriage are likely to celebrate their 10th anniversary; those who don't have children are more than twice as likely not to last 10 years.

"At least eight months" indicates that they did not marry because they "had" to. This also indicates that some people do stay together for the sake of the children – believe you me, it certainly isn't that having children makes marriage easier. There are probably some people in the second part of this statistic who left because they disagreed on having a child, or one person was unable (yes, even with adoption and "third party" reproduction, some people want biologically connected children made the fun way). Finally, some people are actually smart and get/stay married in part because they believe the spouse will be an excellent parent – if they discover something that indicates otherwise, they leave... or perhaps that discovery indicates they aren't suited to be a good spouse – and it is good that they didn't have children.

About 75 percent of marriages between men and women 26 years old or older last at least 10 years, compared with only about half of teen marriages.

Yes, as much as we hear that "fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce", that stat includes second, third, etc. marriages and the fact is that there are steps someone can take to greatly reduce their chances of getting divorced (I mean besides never marrying in the first place, smart alecs). Age has a lot to do with it. It also helps to marry someone with the same or compatible religious views/practices, someone who has never been divorced, and someone who handles their finances well. And don't shack up (see below).

I wonder why ten years was used as the mark? Did that have to do with the time constraints of the study? Ten years strikes me as arbitrary, except that in states like California, ten years of marriage usually obligates the spouse who earned more to pay alimony for life – or until the other spouse remarries. More important to me is – does the marriage last long enough to raise the youngest child? That would be approximately 18 years after their youngest child is born.

*While it may seem counterintuitive, the stats say shacking up is a bad idea for someone who wants to get married and stay married. People who shack up are more likely to divorce, if they even marry. It is somewhat difficult to be absolutely certain as to why, but several reasons make sense to me: 1) One of them didn’t really want to get married, and it was a matter of either shacking up or not living together – marriage wasn’t really an option; 2) People are more likely to stick around or go ahead and get married with the wrong person, simply because it is habit or it is difficult to move; 3) The people who are more open to shacking up are also more open to divorcing; 4) People shacking up establish patterns of interaction with the mindset of being unmarried, and those patterns carry over into the marriage; 5) Men are less motivated to marry a woman who is already providing them with sex and domestic help. Cue dairy reference.

Of course, from a moral standpoint, I would discourage shacking up because I discourage sex with someone who isn't your spouse.

And living together might lead to... dancing. (Yes, that's a joke.)