Not wanting to have thread drift derail the "is this discrimination?" thread (especially the specific advice to the person posting part of it), I thought I would open up a new discussion for those who might be interested in the whys and wherefores of these things.

To start with, I titled the thread rather unoriginally, after the excellent website "Alternatives to Marriage Project" which is the best place to start on the subject I have found. It is very well balanced, offers excellent links, resources, etc. to the uninitiated and the experienced non-traditionally and unconventionally inclined person, seeking information. The website is found here:

http://www.unmarried.org/res.html

They provide these (among many other interesting statistics at the site):

Also from ATP site:

Sizzling Statistics

U.S. Marries More, Divorces More Than Europe

Given political movements to promote marriage in the United States, it is interesting to note that a new report shows the U.S. already has a far higher marriage rate than any country in the European Union. The report on marriage and divorce in the EU between 1989 and 1999 found that EU countries' marriage rate (number of marriages per 1,000 people) is 5.1, compared to 8.4 in the U.S. But the U.S.'s divorce rate is also much higher than the EU's: 4.2 compared to 1.8. The numbers suggest that the challenge is not how to convince more people to get married, but how to help people create healthy, stable relationships.

U.S. in Middle for Unmarried Birth Rate

In the United States, 33% of babies are born to unmarried parents. Contrary to popular opinion, we are not alone in this statistic -- in fact, many European countries have a higher portion of their babies born to unmarried people. Iceland (62%), Sweden (55%), Norway (49%), Denmark (45%), France (41%), the UK (39%) and Finland (39%) all have higher rates. The lowest rate of unmarried births in Europe were in Greece (4%), Italy (9%), and Switzerland (10%). You can read country-by-country data on both of the items above at http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/Public/datashop/print-product/EN?catalogue=Eurostat&product=1-12062001-EN-AP-EN&mode=download

Over a Quarter of American Adults Have Never Married

New Census data finds that in 2000, 31% of men and 25% of women ages 15 and over had never married. In a comparison of households with married couples versus unmarried different-sex partners, the Census finds that 46% of married couples have children under 18, and 41% of unmarried partner households do. Compared to married couples, unmarried male-female partners are more likely to have a woman with more education and who earns more than the man, more likely to have both partners employed, and more likely to be of different races. The report is available at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam.html .