According to statistics, the number of unmarried couples living together has increased dramatically over the past decades. If we live together before marriage, then we can find out how compatible we are. This is usually what people say when you ask them why they want to cohabit ate or live together instead of marriage. By living together, couples are testing their relationship in terms of what married life would be without the commitment of marriage.

Several studies have been done on cohabitation vs. marriage and the results were: Couples that live together before marriage have weaker marriages. A good explanation for this argument would be that those couples who chose to live together before marriage were not ready at the time to make that commitment. They figured that just because they got along in the same apartment while they were living together that they will get along well now that they are married. And this argument can be inviting, however, according to studies, marriage life is different from cohabitation. Let’s take a look at the differences. First, the commitment of marriage means that you will love and take care of each other for life. But living together means that you have a sexual partner and a monthly rental agreement without any strings attached. In a committed relationship, a newly married couple wants to build compatibility, while the couple who is cohabiting wants to test their relationship. Due to the high rate of divorce, many couples think that testing their relationship can help them avoid an unhappy marriage. Some interesting findings are that there is no commitment when you are living together. In other words, “I will allow you to use me, as long as I use you. “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?”

In a study on cohabitation, Most couples who live together do so for: Economic reasons, to spend more time together, fear of losing spouse through death or divorce, pain and anger due to divorce, increased intimacy without getting married, less complicated dissolution and trial marriage. While there are cases of people who have lived together and gotten married, there are other cases of brides that never make it to the altar. Finally, living together increases the risk of drug use and physical, mental and emotional abuse.