ABSTRACT
Nearly half of persons entering first marriages in the late 1980s have cohabited prior to marriage, most of them with the person they married. Well over half of persons who remarry live with a partner between their marriages. Nearly a quarter of all American adults have cohabited at some point in their lives. The great majority of young adults expect to marry. All but 5 percent of persons aged 35 and younger report that they have been married or expect to marry in the future. Never-married persons are much more likely to wish to marry than those who have previously been married. One issue that has received attention in the literature is the degree to which the behavior of persons who are currently cohabiting or who have cohabited in the past is different from that of persons who have not cohabited.
