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Hard to shake the cohabit Is census's increase in unmarried couples a big deal? 05/21/2001 By ALINE McKENZIE / The Dallas Morning News
The number "72 percent" made headlines last week, after the Census Bureau
released its data on households and relationships for 2000.
Across the nation, news reports focused on the 72 percent jump in
unmarried couples living together.
Sociologists talked about the changing face of the nation, while
conservative groups bemoaned the threat to the family.
But the seemingly huge number, while perhaps falling short of the
immortal "lies, damned lies and statistics," certainly qualifies as
"darned confusing statistics."
It's true that there was a 72 percent jump from 1990 to 2000 in
unmarried couples. But that was a jump from 3.2 million couples to 5.5
million, a number still swamped by the 54.5 million married-couple
households in 2000.
"By and large, these things change really slowly," says Jason Fields, a
family demographer for the Census Bureau.
But social changes take decades to manifest, Dr. Fields says. For
instance, the percentage of single-parent households has grown
tremendously, but it took from the late 1960s to the 1990s to go from
5.2 percent of all households to 9.1 percent.
"That jump, by demographic standards, was an incredible jump," Dr.
Fields says. "But it took three decades to happen."
In contrast, the percentage of "nonfamily" households went from 29.8
percent in 1990 to 31.9 percent in 2000. "I don't think anyone would say
that's a tremendous jump," Dr. Fields says. "It's an increase, but it's
not unexpected."
So why did the 72 percent figure take such a hold on folks?
"There really wasn't a lot of change in [the census figures], so people
had to look at something," says Suzanne Bianchi of the sociology
department at the University of Maryland, College Park. "The question
is, is living together replacing marriage?"
And the answer seems to be no, she says. Living together is often
a short-term step before marriage – more than half of all married
couples now live together first – or after a divorce.
"What the census doesn't ask is how many of us have ever done it [living
together]," Dr. Bianchi says. "It just catalogs the people who were
doing it in April 2000."
"I've become very well acquainted with the number 72 this week," laughs
Dorian Solot, executive director of the Alternatives to Marriage
Project. "Suddenly one day, the phone starts ringing off the hook, but
nothing had changed in the outside world. Someone had just stated a
number."
The conservative Family Research Council issued a press release
emphasizing the 72 percent rise in unmarried couples.
"We realize it is still a small percentage [of households] behind the
numbers," says spokeswoman Heather Cirmo. "What's interesting is the
comfort level toward cohabiting couples. They're much more accepted, and
that's what our organization is worried about."
One census figure the group is less worried about is the apparent drop
in families with children, she says. Married couples with children went
from 25.6 percent of all households in 1990 to 23.5 percent in 2000.
But that simply ties in with the fact that the population is aging, and
kids are simply growing up and moving on, she says.
For demographers – scientists who study populations – the current trends
in household makeup are fairly minor.
"It's become more boring," says Pamela Smock of the Institute for Social
Research at the University of Michigan. "It's slowing down."
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