The Declining Significance of Age in Support for Cohabitation, 1994–2022

This chapter documents trends in cohabitation attitudes across age groups between 1994 and 2022 and assesses patterns of age variation in levels of support for cohabitation between younger and older adults. Although growth in cohabitation has stalled among younger adults, it has rapidly risen among those aged 50 and older over the past several decades. These trends portend convergence across age groups in attitudes toward cohabitation. However, the trends in younger and older adults’ levels of support for cohabitation remain unclear. Data from the 1994, 2002, 2012, and 2022 General Social Survey are used to examine change in cohabitation attitudes among U.S. adults aged 18 and older, with a focus on variation in patterns across age groups. Multivariable logistic regression analyses investigated age group differences in support for cohabitation. Our findings reveal dramatic growth in support for cohabitation across age groups over the past three decades. However, whereas the rise in support was more modest for younger adults, the most pronounced increase was among older adults. Nowadays, cohabitation enjoys wide acceptance among U.S. adults, regardless of their age. These patterns have culminated in a convergence in levels of support across age groups. Overall, consonant with the reduction in age variation in the prevalence of cohabitation, attitudes towards cohabitation are now less age-graded, too.