As with other country’s statistics, Australia’s marriage and
divorce rates are both on a decline. As of 2010 marriage rates have dropped 1.5
percent in the last 10 years. Divorce rates have fallen .2 percent in the past
10 years to 2.3 percent. The biggest contributing factor to these rates is the
amount of people deciding to cohabitate before marriage, known to Australian’s
as de facto relationships. It’s not that people that cohabitate aren’t
marrying, but they are waiting longer to marry and divorcing more than those
who do not cohabitate more. As of 2010 those that are marrying, 79 percent had
a de facto relationship first before marrying. Since couple’s are waiting
longer to marry, the average age of marriage has also increased to 29 for men
and 27 for women. These delays have also lead to one in three infant’s being
born to parents who aren’t married. This has become one of the worst effects of
having a de facto relationship before marriage because it then begins to contribute
to other global issues already acknowledged.
Children born to unmarried parents are at higher risk of
experiencing some form of parental break-up which negatively effects their
cognitive and emotional development. Since those who cohabitate before marriage
are at higher risk of divorce this means they are also at higher risk of experiencing
financial difficulties once that happens. This means that the children are then
added to the number of children that experience poverty. So in all,
cohabitation has been affecting relationships and children in a major way.
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