新西蘭英語 35 Living Together

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This news item is about co-habitation, couples who live together without being married.

Our newspapers reported this week on the National Marriage Project report from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, in the United States. Why are we interested in an American report? Because New Zealand was top out of 13 countries with the fastest increase in the percentage of couples cohabitating in the last 10 years. The countries surveyed were the US, Canada, the UK, Scandinavian countries, Western European countries and Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand, 24% of couples live together without being married. In Spain and Italy the figure is only 3% and 4% respectively, while USA is 8%. We think we are similar to Australia in most things but their percentage of couples living together is 15%.

The report mentioned that living together was an ancient custom in Europe until the Catholic Church brought in marriage ceremonies around the 13th and 14th centuries.

Immediately after the Second World War, marriage was very popular in European countries including New Zealand. This was a time of a high birth rate too. However, by the 1970s and 80s, more and more couples started to live together before getting married. Today, probably around 75% of young people live together, sometimes in several relationships, before they decide to get married.

There are a number of reasons for this: birth control, more women having a career, and the increase in divorces means that couples want to avoid a bad marriage. In countries like New Zealand, the welfare system which supports single parents, may also be a reason. Co-habitation has meant that women are having babies later in life too; in fact 45% of women giving birth in New Zealand today are not married.

The report suggests that there are benefits of being married: married people are happier, healthier, wealthier and live longer. There are also benefits for children who live with their natural parents.

One problem with parents who are not married is that they are more likely to separate, leaving children with a single parent. These children are more likely to suffer from poverty or abuse and more likely to grow up with drug or alcohol problems. In New Zealand, 32% of families with children have a single parent. The figure for Australia is 21%.