All marital status groups are represented among cohabiters, with the exception of married people living with their spouse, who, by definition, cannot be cohabiting.
Among people aged 16 to 59 in 2001:
- comparison by age showed that those most likely to be cohabiting were men aged 25 to 29 and women in their twenties (28% for men and 27% and 28% respectively for women aged 20 to 24 and 25 to 29 compared with no more than 18% of any other age/sex group).
Among non-married people (including those who were separated ) aged 16 to 59 in 2001:
- 25% of men and 28% of women were cohabiting;
- nearly twice as many women as men aged 20 to 24 were cohabiting (30% of women and 16% of men ).
Data from 2000 and 2001 were combined to provide a sufficiently large sample to analyse cohabitation by age and legal marital status.
- Among men aged 16 to 59, those who were divorced were more likely than those who were single or separated to be cohabiting, 34% compared with 22% of single or separated men.
- Of women aged 16 to 59 there was little difference between the proportions of divorced and single women who were cohabiting, 30% and 29% respectively.
However, analysis of those who were currently cohabiting showed:
- nearly three quarters of cohabiters were single (73% of cohabiting men and 71% of cohabiting women);
- older cohabiters were more likely to be divorced; among adults aged 50 to 59, 64% of cohabiting men and 76% of cohabiting women were divorced.