Recent research from the National Center for Family and Marriage Research (NCFMR) at Bowling Green State University has found that an increasing number of adults age 50 and over are choosing to live with their partner instead of marrying them.

According to Dr. Susan Brown, lead author of the study and co-director of the NCFMR, most prior research on cohabitation focused on young and middle-aged adults, essentially ignoring the experiences of older adults, which in turn ignores the rapidly aging U.S. population.

This trend is now accelerating as the baby boomers – the first generation to cohabit in large numbers – move into the older adult population, suggesting that cohabitation will be increasingly common among older Americans. “Similar to their younger counterparts, older Americans are embracing cohabitation in record numbers,” Brown noted.

Demographically, researchers found that women are especially reluctant to marry in later life, citing caregiving strains that marriage may involve as well as perceived loss of freedom. Most older cohabiters are divorced, followed by widowed, and then never married, whereas older widowers were more likely to remarry.

Perhaps the more remarkable feature of cohabitation among older adults, in stark contrast to their younger counterparts, is the durability of the unions. Of those who were living together when the study began, the average duration of their unions at that point was more than eight years. Over the ensuing eight years covered by the study, only 18% of these unions ended in separation and only 12% ended in marriage. The rest lasted until either the death of one partner or the end of the study.