COMMON-LAW
MARRIAGE

Topics: Cohabitation; Divorce; Marriage; Relationships; Romance; Sexual Immorality

References: Genesis 2:18–24; 1 Corinthians 7:1–7, 10–11

While marriage still accounts for the majority of relationships, its traditional dominance is giving way to the growing popularity of common-law unions. According to data from the 1995 General Social Survey in Canada, women whose first conjugal union was a common-law relationship were almost twice as likely to separate as women who married first. Young people were more inclined to live in common-law union with their first partner. In 1995, only 1 percent of women ages sixty to sixty-nine lived common-law in their first union. By contrast, 38 percent of women ages thirty to thirty-nine chose common-law first, while 52 percent of those ages twenty to twenty-nine chose common-law.

The likelihood of the common-law relationship ending in divorce or separation has increased significantly. While 25 percent of women ages sixty to sixty-nine experienced a breakup at some point in their lives in 1995, more than 40 percent of those in their thirties and forties had already gone through one.

—Céline Le Bourdais and others, “The Changing Face of Conjugal Relationships,” Canadian Social Trends (Spring 2000)