Spouses with identical residential addresses before marriage: an indicator of pre-marital cohabitation.

This article analyses new data on identical address marriages in England and Wales during 1994. It outlines previous background research which has provided good evidence that identical address marriages are likely to be ones in which the couple premaritally cohabited. Recent evidence, based on results from the General Household Survey, is also presented. The article analyses the number and characteristics of identical address marriages, both to provide new (proxy) information on pre-marital cohabitation, and also to announce the publication of a new set of tables on identical address marriages which will be included in the Marriage and Divorce Statistics annual reference volume in future years. Overall, six in every 10 couples marrying in 1994 gave identical addresses. The pattern of variation of this proportion among different subgroups of couples who married in 1994 is analysed--according to: age at marriage; the previous marital status of the partners before marriage; the manner of solemnisation of the marriage, and, for religious weddings, by denomination; by day of the week; month of the year, and by the county in which the wedding took place.