CHILDREN might be accused of squeezing the romance out of relationships, but they can also take a lot of credit for pushing couples down the aisle.
Couples are twice as likely to marry than cohabit if they have children, with cohabiting couples aged 29 and over tying the knot within three years of the birth of their first child and younger couples delaying no more than six years.
The influence of children on turning cohabitants into married couples holds despite the fact that the rate of cohabitation has soared with numbers increasing four-fold from 30,000 to 120,000 couples between 1996 and 2006.
This increase was concentrated mainly among people in their mid to late 20s, but while that trend may continue so that cohabitation becomes a normal alternative to marriage, it could also be that younger people see it as a prelude to getting married and will ultimately opt for marriage.
Whatever the long-term picture is, the figures from Census 2006 show clearly the impact children have on the decision to marry. There were 62,000 cohabiting couples under the age of 45 without children compared to 56,000 married couples with no children, so cohabitation was the preference for childless couples.
But for couples in the same age group who had children, the reverse was more emphatically true, with 29,000 cohabiting compared to 255,000 who were married.
The researchers suggest the most striking development in recent years was not so much the increase in cohabiting couples but the difference in the perception of marriage.
They describe it as “the change from a situation where marriage was the norm for couples who lived together to one where marriage is the norm for couples who have children together”.
Even among cohabiting couples where one partner was previously married, likelihood of remarriage has strong links to the presence of children, whether they are the children of that relationship or of a previous one.
The exception is where both partners were previously married, but then these couples tend to be older with their children from their previous relationships so the need to get married may be considered less pressing.
Educational attainment also has a role to play in the decision to marry or cohabit, especially among older couples.
Couples where both partners have a third-level qualification are more than twice as likely to marry as couples with lower second-level education.
Similarly, religion plays a part with couples who share a faith less likely to cohabit. In particular, people affiliated to non-Christian religions or to non-Catholic Christian religions are much less likely to cohabit than Catholic couples. Non-religious couples are more likely to cohabit than mixed-faith or shared-faith couples.
Living together
Children, marriage and cohabitation
The influence of children on turning cohabitants into married couples holds despite the fact that the rate of cohabitation has soared with numbers increasing four-fold from 30,000 to 120,000 couples between 1996 and 2006.
This increase was concentrated mainly among people in their mid to late 20s, but while that trend may continue so that cohabitation becomes a normal alternative to marriage, it could also be that younger people see it as a prelude to getting married and will ultimately opt for marriage.
Whatever the long-term picture is, the figures from Census 2006 show clearly the impact children have on the decision to marry. There were 62,000 cohabiting couples under the age of 45 without children compared to 56,000 married couples with no children, so cohabitation was the preference for childless couples.
But for couples in the same age group who had children, the reverse was more emphatically true, with 29,000 cohabiting compared to 255,000 who were married.
The researchers suggest the most striking development in recent years was not so much the increase in cohabiting couples but the difference in the perception of marriage.
They describe it as “the change from a situation where marriage was the norm for couples who lived together to one where marriage is the norm for couples who have children together”.
Even among cohabiting couples where one partner was previously married, likelihood of remarriage has strong links to the presence of children, whether they are the children of that relationship or of a previous one.
The exception is where both partners were previously married, but then these couples tend to be older with their children from their previous relationships so the need to get married may be considered less pressing.
Educational attainment also has a role to play in the decision to marry or cohabit, especially among older couples.
Couples where both partners have a third-level qualification are more than twice as likely to marry as couples with lower second-level education.
Similarly, religion plays a part with couples who share a faith less likely to cohabit. In particular, people affiliated to non-Christian religions or to non-Catholic Christian religions are much less likely to cohabit than Catholic couples. Non-religious couples are more likely to cohabit than mixed-faith or shared-faith couples.
Living together
Children, marriage and cohabitation
* Number of cohabiting couples: 120,000
* Number in which at least one partner was married before: 30,000
* Number in which both partners were married before: 10,000
* In 9.1% of cohabiting couples, the man alone was previously married
* In 5.8% of cohabiting couples, the woman alone was previously married
* In 8.3% of cohabiting couples, both partners were previously married
* 32% of never-married cohabiting couples have children
* 46% of cohabiting couples where the man was married before have children
* 56% of cohabiting couples where the woman was married before have children
* 50% of cohabiting couples where both partners were married before have children (the children being either from the previous or current relationship)
* Cohabiting couples aged 28 or younger marry within three years of birth of first child
* Cohabiting couples aged 29 or older marry within six years of birth of first child
* From a mean age of 26.5 onwards, marriage is the preferred state for couples with children and rapidly becomes the very much preferred state