Marriage Declining While Cohabitation Increasing, Census Finds
Newly released figures from the 2011 Population and Housing Census show that the share of married people in Estonia has dropped significantly compared with the previous, 2000 census while the share of those cohabiting, but not legally married, has jumped by half.
In 2011, 34.5 percent of the population aged 15 and over indicated they were "living with a legal spouse," compared with 39.9 percent in 2000. Over the same 11-year period, those who indicated that they were "vabaabielus" - an Estonian term denoting a marriage-like arrangement without formal marriage - increased from to 10.9 percent to 15.6 percent.
Data from both censuses show that the population in that age group was nearly evenly split when it came to the number of people living with a partner (in a legal marriage or otherwise) and those living without.
Among those living without a partner, those who had never been married made up the largest share - accounting for 25.4 percent of the overall 15-and-over population, followed by 9.8 percent who were divorced, 9.6 percent who were widowed and 3.9 percent who were married but separated.
According to the 2011 census, 428 people were cohabiting with a same-sex partner (206 men and 222 women).