Salon.com reports that according to researchers at the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, divorce rates have been declining in recent years and that one of the main reasons why could be that instead of marriage, more couples are leaving together instead:

Nine of every 1,000 married women in the United States divorced in 1960, according to the study. The rate increased to more than 22 per 1,000 by 1980 and has steadily declined since, to a little under 18 per 1,000 in 2004. Meanwhile, the number of unmarried, opposite-sex couples living together has climbed from 439,000 in 1960 to more than 5 million now.

And the marriage rate has fallen over the past three decades: Seventy-seven out of every 1,000 single women got married in 1976; last year, the number was fewer than 40 per 1,000, the study found.

The study goes on to note that cohabitation without marriage is more likely to end in breakup than marriage, and with more children born to non-married cohabitating couples, this trend could have worrisome consequences for American society in the near future. I don’t really have an analysis or commentary on this at the moment, but I found it interesting nonetheless and if anything, will certainly give sociologists more data to work with.