Report: Cohabitating Couples Having More Children

A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has found that couples who are living together but are not married are having children at higher rates than in past years.

CNN.com reports that the NCHS has been tracking a steady rise in children born to unmarried couples over the last decade. Between 2006 and 2010, 22 percent of first-time births were born to cohabitating couples, while only 12 percent were born to such families in 2002. Almost half of all unmarried couples who had children were living together.

"The primary reason that we even look at that is because studies have shown that there's differences in the resources available to children born in families with only one parent," the NCHS's Gladys Martinez told CNN. "Children born to unmarried mothers statistically have less stability and therefore, more environmental stressors in their lives."

Image: Couple expecting a baby, via Shutterstock.