Editing Cohabitation (section)

====United Kingdom====
{{main|Cohabitation in the United Kingdom}}
In the United Kingdom today, nearly half of babies are born to people who are not married (in the United Kingdom 47.3% in 2011;<ref name=tps00018/> in [[Scotland]] in 2012 the proportion was 51.3%<ref>{{cite web |website=www.gro-scotland.gov.uk |url=http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files2/stats/births-marriages-deaths-quarterly/ve-2012-q4-tableq1.pdf |title= Table Q1: Births, stillbirths, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships, numbers and rates, Scotland, quarterly, 2002 to 2012|access-date=17 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617080614/http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files2/stats/births-marriages-deaths-quarterly/ve-2012-q4-tableq1.pdf |archive-date=17 June 2013}}</ref>). It is estimated that by 2016, the majority of births in the United Kingdom will be to unmarried parents.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-23265810 |title=Most babies born out of marriage by 2016, trend suggests|work=BBC News|date=11 July 2013|access-date=22 August 2015}}</ref>{{Needs update|date=December 2022}}

The [[Victorian era]] of the late 19th century is famous for the Victorian standards of personal morality.  Historians generally agree that the middle classes held high personal moral standards and rejected cohabitation. They have debated whether the working classes followed suit. Moralists in the late 19th century such as [[Henry Mayhew]] decried high levels of cohabitation without marriage and illegitimate births in London slums. However new research using computerized matching of data files shows that the rates of cohabitation were quite low—under 5% – for the working class and the urban poor.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Rebecca Probert |title=Living in Sin |magazine=BBC History Magazine |date=Sep 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=G. Frost |title=Living in Sin: Cohabiting as Husband and Wife in Nineteenth-Century England |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2008}}</ref>

Falling marriage rates and increased births outside marriage have become a political issue, with questions of whether the government should promote marriage or focus on the status of a parent rather than a spouse; the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] support the former whilst [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] and the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] support the latter.<ref>{{cite web|title=Marriage and cohabitation: key issues for the 2010 Parliament|work=UK Parliament |url=http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/key-issues-for-the-new-parliament/social-reform/marriage-and-cohabitation/|access-date=22 August 2015}}</ref> There are also differences between [[England and Wales]] and [[Scotland]], with the latter being more accepting of cohabitation.<ref>{{cite web|title=Family Matters – Cohabitation |publisher=Scottish Government |url=http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Justice/law/17867/fm-couples-root/fm-couples-cohabitation|access-date=22 August 2015 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924040817/http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Justice/law/17867/fm-couples-root/fm-couples-cohabitation|archive-date=24 September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=Family Law Week|title=Lessons to be learned for cohabitation cases in England, says Lady Hale in Supreme Court Scottish case |url=http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed98906 |access-date=22 August 2015 |archive-date=10 March 2023 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310081023/https://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed98906}}</ref>