Cohabitation Statistics - The Consequences

In "Together Too Soon" in World Magazine, author Mike McManus presents some saddening statistics concerning the growing trend of cohabitation.

• "The average cohabitation last 18 months"
• "Only 30% [of cohabitations] 'transitioned into marriage'"
• "the 70% of couples who separate after living together experience a 'premarital divorce,' which can be as painful as a real divorce"
• "Marriages that are preceded by living together have 50% higher disruption rates than marriages without premarital cohabitation"
• "those who cohabited even only for one month displayed poorer communication and problem solving skills than those who had not lived together first"
• "the majority of non-marital births (52%) occurred within cohabiting unions...13 million single-parent families cost taxpayers $20,000 per family in 2004, a total of $260 billion.  Half of that total comes from unwed births to cohabiting moms"

Hebrews 13:4 "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous."