Chapter 1: A Geography of Cohabitation in the Americas, 1970-2010: Albert Esteve, Antonio López-Gay, Julián López-Colás, Iñaki Permanyer, Sheela Kennedy, Benoît Laplante, Ron Lesthaeghe, Anna Turu, Teresa Antònia Cusidó -- Chapter 2: The Rise of Cohabitation in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1970-2011: Albert Esteve, Ron Lesthaeghe, Antonio López-Gay and Joan Garcia-Román -- Chapter 3: Cohabitation and Marriage in Canada. The Geography, Law and Politics of Competing Views on Gender Equality: Benoît Laplante and Ana Laura Fostik -- Chapter 4: The Social Geography of Unmarried Cohabitation in the USA, 2007-2011: Ron Lesthaeghe, Julián López-Colás and Lisa Neidert -- Chapter 5: The Expansion of Cohabitation in Mexico, 1930-2010: The Revenge of History?: Albert Esteve, Ron Lesthaeghe, Julieta Quilodrán, Antonio López-Gay, Julián López-Colás -- Chapter 6: Consensual Unions in Central America: Historical Continuities and New Emerging Patterns: Teresa Castro-Martín and Antía Domínguez -- Chapter 7: The Boom of Cohabitation in Colombia and in the Andean Region: Social and Spatial Patterns: Albert Esteve, A. Carolina Saavedra, Julián López-Colás, Antonio López-Gay, Ron Lesthaeghe -- Chapter 8: Cohabitation in Brazil: Historical Legacy and Recent Evolution: Albert Esteve, Ron Lesthaeghe, Julián López-Colás, Antonio López-Gay and Maira Covre-Sussai -- Chapter 9: The Rise of Cohabitation in the Southern Cone: Georgina Binstock, Wanda Cabella, Viviana Salinas and Julián López-Colás -- Chapter 10: Conclusions: The Pan-American View: Ron Lesthaeghe and Albert Esteve.

Open Access

This open access book presents an innovative study of the rise of unmarried cohabitation in the Americas, from Canada to Argentina. Using an extensive sample of individual census data for nearly all countries on the continent, it offers a cross-national, comparative view of this recent demographic trend and its impact on the family. The book offers a tour of the historical legacies and regional heterogeneity in unmarried cohabitation, covering: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, Colombia, the Andean region, Brazil, and the Southern Cone. It also explores the diverse meanings of cohabitation from a cross-national perspective and examines the theoretical implications of recent developments on family change in the Americas. The book uses data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International (IPUMS), a project dedicated to collecting and distributing census data from around the world. This large sample size enables an empirical testing of one of the currently most powerful explanatory frameworks for changes in family formation around the world, the theory of the Second Demographic Transition. With its unique geographical scope, this book will provide researchers with a new understanding into the spectacular rise in premarital cohabitation in the Americas, which has become one of the most salient trends in partnership formation in the region. .