Fewer young and more older cohabitants

Published:

For the age group 20-24 years, the proportion of cohabitants has decreased over the last ten years. For all 30+ age groups, however, the number of cohabitants has gradually increased.

The proportion of cohabitants among persons aged 16 to 79 years has been quite stable over the last ten years, but there are differences between age groups. For persons aged 20-24 years, the proportion of cohabitants has decreased. The reason is mainly that more persons in this age group now report that they are not in a live-in relationship. For those in a live-in relationship, nine out of ten are cohabitants.

For the age group 25-29 years, the proportion of cohabitants has been stable over the last ten years, about 40 per cent. Two out of three living as a couple are cohabitants in this age group.

Figure 1. Proportion of cohabitants 1993-2016

Cohabitants, proportion of the whole population Cohabitants, proportion of all in a live-in relationship
1993-1995 13 19
1996-1998 15 22
1999-2001 16 24
2002-2004 18 27
2005-2007 18 27
2008-2010 17 25
2011-2013 18 27
2014-2016 18 28

More cohabitants over the age of 30

Half of the persons between 30 and 34 years in a live-in relationship are cohabitants. For older people, the proportion decreases by age. The proportion of cohabitants, however, has increased over the last 20 years for all 30+ age groups. For the age group 50-54 years, the proportion of cohabitants was 6 per cent 20 years ago, 10 per cent 10 years ago and is currently 17 per cent. Most people 60 years and older living as a couple are married.

Figur 2. Proportion of cohabitants in different age groups. 1993-2016

20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-69 70-79
1993-1995 25 35 24 15 10 8 6 4 3 1
2005-2007 30 40 31 24 20 16 10 8 6 2
2014-2016 23 39 37 31 22 20 17 14 8 4

Female cohabitants are younger than male

For persons in their 20s, the proportion of cohabitants is higher for women than for men. For the age group 30-54 years, there is no substantial gender gap, but for people above 55 years, the proportion of cohabitants is higher for men than for women.

Figure 3. Proportion of cohabitans in different age groups. Men and women. 2014-2016

20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-69 70-79
Men 19 36 38 33 22 20 17 18 10 5
Women 28 43 36 28 22 21 16 10 6 2

More cohabitants when using interview data

Whether a person is defined as cohabiting or not, depends on the answer to this question given by the person in the interview. In the register-based family statistics, two persons must be registered on the same legal address to be defined as a cohabiting couple. Experience shows that statistics based on registers result in fewer cohabiting couples than statistics from sample surveys based on interviews.

Data source

The statistics on cohabitation are based on data collected by interviews in the Travel survey. The annual sample size is 8 000 persons in the age group 16-79 years. The average response rate for the years 2014-2016 is 58 per cent.