Cohabitation, marriage and separation: contrasts in Europe

Editorial – Cohabitation, marriage and separation: contrasts in Europe • Premarital cohabitation: more common in the north than in the south p. 2 • Cohabitation leads less often to marriage p. 2 • Fewer men and women are marryingp. 2 • Unions are more short-lived p. 3 • Several unions in a lifetime: a general trend? p. 4 • Box: Study population p. 4 C O N TE N TS are not marrying at all. Unions also tend to be shorterlived, as separation and divorce become more common. This new conjugal behaviour emerged in the late 1960s in Scandinavia, spearheaded by Sweden, and has gradually spread to the rest of Europe, but to varying degrees depending on the country. Fewer and fewer Europeans are marrying and more and more are living together without being married. Europeans are also separating and divorcing more frequently, often to form a second or even a third union. Beyond these common trends, the situations in different countries are highly contrasting: nonmarital cohabitation and union dissolution are widespread in the north, while marriage continues to predominate in southern Europe and in some eastern European countries.