Cohabitational and marital histories of adults in Great Britain.

This article presents findings on cohabitation-derived from cohabitation and marriage histories collected in a specially designed module of the ONS Omnibus Survey. It examines the sequence of types of partnerships, and how this sequence varies by birth cohort of respondents. Also compared is the relative stability of cohabiting unions and married partnerships. Finally, the reasons for converting a cohabiting union into a marriage are analysed--separately for men and women, and separately according to whether the marriage continued or ended.