Table 1.

Union status around a couple’s first birth, by country

	United States	Norway	Sweden	United Kingdom	Austria	France	Italy	Spain
Union Status Indicators
Cohabiting at birth (x1 = 1)	0.41	0.62	0.64	0.40	0.45	0.45	0.08	0.29
Proportion of all months spent married following birth (x2t = 1)	0.72	0.49	0.44	0.71	0.65	0.56	0.96	0.78
N (unions)	5,232	1,142	710	628	817	795	689	1,281
N (union-months)	244,529	66,065	40,721	34,933	44,375	44,941	41,147	67,641
Transitions to Marriage Among Those Cohabiting at Birth
Married within 1 year	0.11	0.09	0.08	0.07	0.11	0.09	0.23	0.06
Married within 2 years	0.22	0.18	0.16	0.20	0.22	0.17	0.39	0.11
Married within 5 years	0.44	0.35	0.37	0.46	0.48	0.36	0.55	0.23
Married within 10 years	0.63	0.45	0.55	0.62	0.61	0.44	0.55	0.25
N (unions)	2,525	696	452	282	365	425	56	347
N (union-months)	99,729	38,259	25,486	14,520	17,953	21,942	2,472	15,282

Notes: Ns are unweighted. All means are weighted using SVY procedures in STATA 12. Cohabiting at birth is measured in the month of the couple’s first birth together (i.e., the first month of the union-month file). Married in month t is estimated from the full union-month sample. Transitions to marriage are generated from life tables that treat union dissolution as a competing risk.

Source: Harmonized Histories and the 2006–2010 and 2011–2013 National Survey of Family Growth (women only, under 45 years of age). Sample is limited to couples with a first child together within 10 years of interview.