Volume 18 - Article 16 | Pages 443–468  

Not truly partnerless: Non-residential partnerships and retreat from marriage in Spain

By Teresa Castro Martín, Marta Dominguez Folgueras, Teresa Martín García

Abstract

In Spain, nearly two-thirds of women aged 20-34 have not yet entered their first union. However, almost half of them have a stable partner in a different household. Hence, the drop in marriage rates and low prevalence of cohabitation cannot be rightly interpreted as a decline in partnership formation, but rather as a postponement of co-residential unions. This paper examines the prevalence and determinants of non-residential stable partnerships among young adults (women aged 20-34), in relation to cohabitation and marriage, using a multinomial logit model of current partnership type. The analysis is based on data from the 1999 Spanish Fertility Survey.

Author’s Affiliation

• Teresa Castro Martín - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain EMAIL
• Marta Dominguez Folgueras - Observatoire Sociologique du Changement (OSC), France EMAIL
• Teresa Martín García - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain EMAIL

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