Quebec's Cohabitating Majority

When it comes to living together, Europeans have a more... well, continental attitude. In some parts of Western Europe, notably France, Denmark and Sweden, cohabitation has become almost as common as marriage; in Sweden, nearly half of all children are born to unwed parents.

Why the difference? Social policies such as government-subsidized child care obviously make cohabitation a more viable option in Western Europe. But the decision to cohabit goes beyond laws and benefits, as the Canadian case makes clear.

Marriage and cohabitation rates in most of Canada are similar to those in the United States. Quebec, however, is more EU than NAFTA. Cohabitation is as common in this province as it is in Sweden, finds sociologist and demographer Celine Le Bourdais of McGill University in Montreal. Even though social policies are similar throughout the country, Quebec has two-and-a-half times the cohabitation rate as the rest of the nation; 80 percent of all Quebecois marriages begin with cohabitation, compared with 50 percent in English-speaking Canada.

Religion may be one reason. Quebec is mostly Catholic, and as people began leaving the church in the 1980s and 1990s, they may have abandoned traditional ceremonies altogether. Le Bourdais suspects the phenomenon also stems from the greater interest in gender equality in Quebec. Across the Western world, cohabitation tends to favor more equable relationships than marriage: Cohabiters who earn similar amounts of money have more stable relationships, while equal incomes are associated with less stability for husbands and wives. In typical cohabiting relationships, says Le Bourdais, "people invest in their own autonomy. Women will work full-time, but the couple doesn't share bank accounts." In Quebec, where gender differences are downplayed in favor of parity, cohabitation may simply seem natural.