Cohabitating Couples Having More Babies

Non-traditional families are on the rise in the US, as more unmarried couples are having babies together. In 2002, just 14% of all births were to women who lived with a partner. But between 2006 and 2010, 23% of all births were to cohabitating women, a new federal report finds. About half of those births were intended, while more than 75% of births to married women were intended, USA Today reports. For unmarried women who were not living with a partner, just one-third of births were intended.

Researchers thought that, thanks to better contraception options, unintended births might drop—but the longer-acting contraceptive methods aren't widely-used enough to make a difference. Plus, "because there's an underlying shift in the population that more people are cohabiting, that leads to more unintended pregnancies and unintended births," says one expert. Overall, 37% of births were unintended—and that number has not changed since 1982. (More cohabitation stories.)