Living Arrangements of Cohabiting Couples and Single Mothers in Latin America

Ron J. Lesthaeghe, University of Michigan and University of California, Irvine
Joan Garcia Roman, Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics (CED)

The dramatic shift from marriage to cohabitation during the last four decades in most Latin American countries begs the question as to the living arrangements of cohabiting couples and single mothers. The IPUMS samples of Latin American censuses facilitated the construction of a typology that classifies individuals with respect to the type of household in which they are living. Results show that cohabiting women and single mothers of ages 25 to 29 are frequently found in parental households or in other extended households. Coresidence of cohabiting couples with other kin drops significantly upon the transition to parenthood, and then there are no differences between cohabiting and married couples anymore. Single mothers, however, continue to coreside in extended or composite households, and this holds particularly for the better educated among them.