49. Fruktbarhet blant norske kvinner: Resultater fra ... - SSB

332
The pattern of marriage and cohabitation is the subject of chapter
6. The data of the Fertility Survey makes it possible to analyze the
contracting and dissolution of marriage and of other types of cohabitation.
Cohabitation without marriage and legal marriages are treated in the same
manner in the questionnaire, in spite of the differences between marriage
and the common-law types of cohabitation. Since cohabitation without marriage
and formal marriages are treated in the same manner in the questionnaire,
it is possible to make comparisons for the period covered by the
surveybetween the marital pattern according to the population statistics
and the total cohabitational pattern according to the survey data.
Of all the persons interviewed, 71 per cent were married, and a
further 5 per cent were previously married. The percentage who had never
been married, varies considerably with age; from 92 per cent among the 18
to 19year-olds, to 3 per cent among the 40 to 44 year-olds. Considering
that the non-response is somewhat larger among those living on their own,
there is consistency between these findings and the figures emerging from
the current population statistics. In addition to married persons it turns
out that 5 per cent of those who have answered, are living in so-called cohabitation
without marriage, i.e. live permanently together with a man
without being formally married to him. The percentage of women living in
cohabitation without marriage is largest among the 20 to 24 year-olds, 12
per cent. The percentage having ever lived in cohabitation without marriage,
however, is far greater. The difference between those who have
ever cohabited and those who are cohabiting is particularly large among
the oldest persons in the sample. The largest proportion of women who
have at some time cohabited without marriage is found among the women in
their early 20s, 42 per cent of the 23 year-olds (women born in 1954) is
the highest percentage. This great difference between the proportion of
those currently living in and those having ever lived in cohabitation
without marriage is due to the fact that cohabitation without marriage is
frequently the initial stage of a subsequent marriage to the same man.
Cohabitation without marriage appears only to a small extent to represent
a lasting alternative to marriage. Cohabitation without marriage which
does not change into marriage is notably less stable than a formal marriage.
There is a far greater probability of it being dissolved, and its
duration before dissolvation is much shorter, on an average a dissolved
cohabitation without marriage has had a duration of 1.2 years, compared
with 7 years for dissolved marriages. Among cohabitations without marriage
started 1971 and earlier, only 13 per cent still existed after 5
years, whereas the percentage not dissolved among the marriages was 96.