t for couples who do not want the social, personal and legal commitment that is often associated with marriage. According to Bumpass, Sweet and Cherlin (1991) the concept of cohabitation has increased significantly in the past 30 years. From 1970 to 1998, the number of cohabitating couples has risen from five hundred thousand to just over 4 million (Bumpass et al., 1991).
             Cohabitation is becoming more and more popular in the recent years in the older population. There has been a great change in trends for cohabitation in the older population between 1960 and 1990. Research by Albert Chevan (1996) found that in 1990 2.4 percent of the American population for persons 60 years of age or older were resorting to cohabitation as an alternative to marriage. In 1960 that percentage was nearly zero (Chevan, 1996). Chevan also found that since older males are in shortage compared to older females, they have a greater advantage in finding a partner to cohabitate with. Older woman are also at a disadvantage because older men are cohabitating with younger females (Chevan, 1996). Chevan has also theorized that cohabitation is a response to poverty by the elderly, stating that elderly with higher incomes tend to merry while elderly with lower incomes tend to cohabitate.
             Many other people besides the elderly are finding cohabitation as a suitable substitute to marriage as well. Arne Mastekaasa (1994) studied trends in cohabitation among widows and widowers, divorced, separated, and the never married. The obtained data was collected based on actual living arrangements, formal marital status, and time since the latest change in one's marital status (Mastekaasa, 1994). Mastekaasa used a relatively large sample size in his study. He studied persons between the age of 20 and 74 years of age, over 250 of whom were separated, 1,100 divorced, 2,700 widowed, 9,000 never married, and 38,000 married (Mastekaasa, 1994). Mastekaasa also found that separa...