A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that more women had their first child while living with an unmarried partner in the early 2020s compared to the early 1990s. The report, titled “Women’s Living Arrangements at First Birth,” examines how women’s marital and cohabitation status at the time of their first birth has changed over three decades, with a focus on differences by education level and race or ethnicity.
The data indicates that fewer women had their first child while neither married nor living with a partner in 2020-2024 than in 1990-1994.
Among women with at least a bachelor’s degree, there was an increase in those who were married at the time of their first birth, rising from 74.4% in 1990-1994 to 84.5% in 2020-2024. In this group, only 4.4% were neither married nor living with a partner during their first birth in the early 2020s, down from 14.4% three decades earlier.
For women without a bachelor’s degree, marriage at first birth declined from 58.6% to 40.6% over the same period. Cohabitation among these women increased significantly—from 19.2% to 34.8%.
The report also highlights racial and ethnic differences: In the early 1990s, Asian women were most likely to be married when they had their first child (81.7%), followed by White (71.8%), Hispanic (61.2%), and Black mothers (31.5%). By the early 2020s, marriage rates for Hispanic mothers dropped to 43.9%, while rates for Asian, White, and Black mothers did not change significantly.
Cohabitation became more common among White and Hispanic mothers having their first child: it rose from 14.5% to 20.2% for White mothers and from 20.4% to 34.0% for Hispanic mothers between the two periods studied.
Further details are available through resources such as the Current Population Survey June Fertility Supplement File and America Counts.
