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• Untraditional couples in the United States

Back in May, we did a program about untraditional couples in the United States. Since then there have been some developments.
For example, same-sex couples now have a right to marry in the state of New York. New York became the sixth and largest state to make same-sex marriage legal. The new law took effect in late July.
And there are new findings about cohabitating couples in America. This week on our program, we look at some of the reasons why more couples are deciding to live together without getting married.
And, later, we tell you about another development, although this one involves a traditional group. More married couples are staying married.
Population experts at the Census Bureau say cohabitation rates jumped between two thousand nine and two thousand ten. There was a thirteen percent increase in the number of couples who started living together without getting married first.
What could have caused such a big increase in just one year? The Great Recession -- the worst downturn in America's economy since the Great Depression in the nineteen thirties. Officially the recession lasted eighteen months. The economy began to grow again in June of two thousand nine. But the Commerce Department now says the recession was even worse than it thought. And the recovery has been slower than expected. Some economists are warning of the possibility of another recession, a double dip.
Researchers say the Great Recession played a big part in pushing cohabitation rates higher. Now, almost one in ten opposite-sex couples in the United States live together outside marriage. Increasingly a major difference between couples who get married and couples who do not is money.
Charlie Pinto married his girlfriend in New Jersey earlier this year. Both of them are twenty-six. They met in college, dated for a while, then moved in together. Charlie admits the only way they could pay for the wedding they wanted was with help from their parents.
"We wouldn’t have been able to have a wedding if it wasn’t for our families because we just don’t have the money to spend.”
Charlie works for a start-up Internet company. His wife, Tracey, is a special education teacher.
Charlie says the wedding cost more than twenty-five thousand dollars. That is typical. A popular wedding website took a survey of American couples. Theknot.com found that in two thousand nine, the average couple spent almost twenty-seven thousand dollars on their wedding. For some couples, that price may be out of reach. Yet no one has to spend that much. A judge or court clerk can perform a marriage ceremony for as little as twenty-five dollars in some states.
The cost of a wedding is not the only financial factor that couples consider in deciding whether and when to get married. Many people also think about whether they can afford to take care of a family.
D’Vera Cohn is a researcher and writer for the Pew Research Center . Her team did an opinion survey asking people if they thought it was important to be a good provider in order to be married.
“Most people say it’s very important for a man to be able to support a family in order to marry, and about a third say it’s important for a woman to be able to support a family in order to marry.”
Americans may agree that couples should be financially secure before they get married. Yet the weak economy has made financial security even harder to reach. The unemployment rate doubled between two thousand seven and two thousand nine. The rate has fallen but still it was 9.1 percent in July.
The difficulty of finding and keeping a job may be one reason why some couples are choosing not to marry. D'Vera Cohn says it might also be a reason why more couples are deciding to live together.
“We asked cohabiters whether household finances played a role in their decision to move in together. And about a third of them said it did -- of couples who had ever lived together, people who had ever lived as an unmarried couple. So there are indications that people are thinking about mone

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