Cohabitation vs marriage grows faster in 50 of 51 jurisdictions
Unmarried-couple households outpaced married-couple households in 50 of 51 U.S. jurisdictions between 2014 and 2024, according to an Envision Family Law analysis of Census Bureau figures. The geographic reach extended beyond coastal cities into Midwest and New England areas, including metros where married-couple households declined in absolute numbers. Vermont recorded cohabiting household growth of 56.9 percent against 2.3 percent for married households. Alaska stood as the only exception.
Nationally, unmarried-couple households reached 9,593,464 in 2024, up from approximately 7.2 million in 2014. Cohabiting households grew more than three times as fast as married households over the decade. In 319 of 367 metropolitan areas, cohabiting households expanded faster. Their share of coupled households in those metros rose from 11.5 percent to 13.5 percent.
The ten jurisdictions with the highest 2024 cohabitation shares were District of Columbia at 24.3 percent, Vermont at 20.0 percent, New Mexico at 17.5 percent, Nevada at 17.2 percent, Rhode Island at 17.0 percent, Maine at 16.7 percent, Oregon at 16.3 percent, Wisconsin at 15.4 percent, Washington at 15.2 percent, and Arizona at 15.1 percent. The District of Columbia led with nearly one in four coupled households unmarried. Vermont posted the largest share increase, rising six percentage points.
Among metropolitan areas, Las Vegas recorded the highest 2024 cohabitation share at 17.6 percent, followed by Milwaukee at 17.2 percent, Rochester at 16.9 percent, Providence at 16.9 percent, Buffalo at 16.5 percent, Portland at 16.1 percent, Miami at 16.0 percent, Tucson at 15.9 percent, Fresno at 15.8 percent, and Louisville at 15.3 percent. Las Vegas maintained top prevalence while Milwaukee showed one of the sharpest gains from its 2014 level of 12.4 percent.
Milwaukee and Hartford were the only two large metros where married-couple households fell in absolute count. Milwaukee saw married households decline 1.7 percent while cohabiting households rose 43.4 percent to about 56,500. Hartford recorded a 2.8 percent drop in married households alongside 23.6 percent growth in cohabiting households. By contrast, Miami posted 50.3 percent cohabiting growth and Seattle recorded 46.6 percent.
Married-couple households fell to 47 percent of all American households in 2025 from 66 percent in 1975, a 19-percentage-point decline. The median age at first marriage reached 30.8 years for men and 28.4 years for women in 2025, up 7.3 years from 1975 levels for both.
Later or non-marital cohabitation does not equate to rejection of long-term relationships. Some couples marry later while others form shared households without marriage.
The Census Bureau released its 2025 American Community Survey 1-year estimates on October 29, 2026. Envision Family Law’s decade-long geographic analysis supplies a baseline for assessing whether cohabitation patterns continued into the new reporting year.
