Divorce and marriage rates down, cohabitation up
A recent study by the National Marriage Project at Rutgers reports that the divorce rate dropped last year, continuing a downward trend from 1980. That is the good news. The bad news ...
is that the reason seems to be that couples are living together instead of getting married. The number of cohabiting couples has increased 1,200 percent since 1960. Besides the societal problems inherent in this "arrangement", it is further complicated by the fact that 40 percent of those cohabitation households have children, a risky proposition for kids, given the fragility of those couplings, the researchers say.
In Alabama, this is complicated further by the fact that we are one of the few remaining states that recognize common law marriages. And, no, there is no "time requirement" for a common law marriage. The essential test is whether or not the couples hold themselves out as husband and wife. This is obviously a subjective standard that may land unsuspecting "cohabiting partners" in divorce court anyway.
Here is link to an article on regarding study.