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According to a new study, many more people are deciding to live together, unmarried, and are having children as a result of this than in the past. According to USA Today, almost half of women between the ages of 15 and 44 have had their first real “union” through cohabitation. The study, done by the National Center for Health Statistics was based off of interviews conducted with 12,279 women from 2006 to 2010. It also showed that the numbers of people shacking up have even increased a great deal since 1995, when there were only 34 percent of women saying they had done it, and from 2002, when 43 percent proclaimed their current or previous cohabited status.

Other findings in the study including detailing which groups are cohabiting more and more, the length of time on average people are doing it, how many become pregnant during that time, and what the opportunity for marriage is looking like after saying I do…to sharing bills under the same roof. The women who have cohabited have definitely increased for all ethnic groups, though the study says Asian women are the exception. Hispanic women have gone up to 57 percent cohabitation, 43 percent for whites and 39 percent for blacks. The study also finds that 70 percent of women cohabiting as a first union don’t have a high school diploma, while 47 percent of women with a bachelor’s live with their partners, and according to USA Today, “Among women ages 22-44 with higher education, their cohabitations were more likely to transition to marriage by within years (53%), compared with 30% for those who didn’t graduate high school.”

About 19 percent of women were found to have become pregnant within the first year of living with their partner, and 22 months was the median amount of time people lived together, an increase from 20 months in 2002. But within three years of living together, 40 percent of women were able to get a ring put on it, while 32 percent continued to live together and 27 percent of those studied fell out and broke up.

I’m sure we all know a few friends or family members who are cohabiting. And it’s clear that more and more people are becoming comfortable with living with a partner before marriage, and for some, it’s setting them up for pregnancy, while others do end up walking down the aisle. Question is, are you down for cohabitation? Why are why not?

Source: Shutterstock.com/pkchai

Anecdotal evidence of women deciding to delay motherhood is showing up in a major way in quantitative analyses. A new government report, “Estimated Pregnancy Rates and Rates of Pregnancy Outcomes for the United States, 1990-2008,” from the National Center for Health Statistics has found that among American women in their early 20s, pregnancy rates have fallen almost 18 percent from 1990 to 2008, and their abortion rate has dropped by 32 percent.

In 1990, the pregnancy rate among 20- to 24-year-olds was 198.5 per 1,000. As of 2008, that rate was 163 per 1,000 women. That 18 percent difference was much more dramatic than the change among 25- to 29-year-olds. The decrease in pregnancy rates in that group was just 6 percent. Abortion rates also went down in both age segments from 56.7 per 1,000 in 1990 to 38.4 per 1,000 in 2008 among the women in their early 20s. For women in their late 20s, the difference in abortion rates was 33.9 per 1,000 in 1990 to 28.6 per 1,000 in 2008.

“It’s not just the teens,” one of the study authors, Stephanie Ventura, said referring to a study in February which found teen pregnancy and abortion rates had dropped dramatically. “Abortion rates are down across the board. If the pregnancy rates are down, including both births and abortion rates, that would show more efforts to prevent unwanted pregnancies.”

That means more women are taking advantage of birth control, including condoms and other hormonal contraceptives to stop motherhood altogether, and some are simply delaying pregnancy as seen by the fact that the decreases in these rates aren’t as dramatic in women in their late 20s.

Overall, the report showed in 2008, 65 percent of pregnancies ended in a live birth, 18 percent in an abortion and 17 percent in fetal loss. In 1990, 61 percent of pregnancies ended in a live birth, 24 percent were aborted, with 15 percent resulted in fetal loss.

*Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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