How long did you date?

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by glatt

But the 85% number is such a high number, I don't think it can all be explained by the points you made.

I think it could. Very easily, in fact. Harley even states this in his reply letter about living together:

If either of you slips up, the test is over, and you are out the door. Marriage doesn't work that way. Slip-ups don't end the marriage, they just end the love you have for each other.

I agree there are some good points in the article and I do think there is a big difference in how a relationship grows in living together, but I would not weigh heavily on these statistics. Hey, the divorce rate in 1950 was 2.6 for every 1,000 couples, much lower than today's rates. People were also getting married at a very young age on average. So, should we encourage people to get married in their teens, again?

There is a correlation between cohabitation and religious view, so I don't doubt that the statistics play the way they do because of it.