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Concept
Cohabitation
Summary
Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increasingly common in Western countries since the late 20th century, being led by changing social views, especially regarding marriage, gender roles and religion.
More broadly, the term cohabitation can mean any number of people living together. To "cohabit", in a broad sense, means to "coexist". The origin of the term comes from the mid 16th century, from the Latin cohabitare, from co- 'together' + habitare 'dwell'.
Today, cohabitation is a common pattern among people in the Western world.
In Europe, the Scandinavian countries have been the first to start this leading trend, although many countries have since followed. Mediterranean Europe has traditionally been very conservative, with religion playing a strong role. Until the mid-1990s, cohabitation levels remained low in this region, but have since increased; for example, in Portugal the majority of children have been born of unwed parents since 2015, constituting 60% of the total in 2021.
In the United States of America, during the past few decades, there has been an increase in unmarried couples cohabiting. Historically, many Western countries have been influenced by Christian doctrines on sex, which opposes unmarried cohabitation. As social norms have changed, such beliefs have become less widely held by the population and some Christian denominations today view cohabitation as a precursor to marriage. Pope Francis has married a cohabiting couple who had children, while former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the Archbishop of York John Sentamu have expressed tolerance of cohabitation.
In recent decades high rates of participation of women in the workforce, and the widespread availability of highly effective long acting reversible contraceptives has led to women making individual choices over their reproduction with decreased reliance on male partners for financial stability.
Official source
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