[The increase in cohabitation: changes in related demographic behavior]

The Dutch period- and age-specific hazard rates of marriages cohabitation [and] dissolution of cohabitation are studied. Also family formation according to living arrangement of the mother is examined. The number of cohabiting persons has risen markedly....Rates of direct marriage have declined....The increased period of cohabitation is mainly linked with a delay in marriage among young cohabitors; it does however not coincide with a decreasing risk dissolution....Fertility rates of married women have risen across the birth cohorts while fertility rates of cohabiting women and women living without partner have remained fairly stable. (SUMMARY IN ENG) (EXCERPT)