1.0 IntroductionCohabitation is and has been a norm in almost all societies around the world. It has been seen as the stepping stone to marriage by the modern generation. According to Whitman (2003), cohabitation has grown so much that there is one cohabiting couple in seven marriages in 2010, compared to one in 90 marriages in 1960. According to her, the attitude towards the entire marriage institution has changed radically. over time. In the same article, currently published in the United States, out of 3 single women, one chooses to live with her partner before marriage, whereas in the 1950s, only one in ten chose to do so. Another statistic reveals that the number of cohabiting partners has increased exponentially, from 430,000 in 1960 to 5.4 million couples in 2005 (Fowler, R, 2008). From these shocking statistics, we need to discover the pros and cons of cohabitation. First, the meaning of cohabitation and marriage must be clearly defined before further research. In the Concise English Dictionary (9th edition), cohabitation comes from the word "cohabit" which is defined as "to live together, [especially] as husband and wife without being married to each other", while the Marriage is defined as "the legal union of a man and a woman to live together and often have children." Nowadays, long-term cohabitation is seen more as an alternative to marriage. Couples now prefer cohabitation because of the “freedom” and “guarantee of compatibility” it supposedly offers. However, the issue of cohabitation that is called into question is the stability of the relationship. We know that cohabitation is recognized by all countries in the world as the legal union of a man and a woman. The question arises: 'Will he cohabit...... middle of paper ......ation', Family Matters, pp. 24-27, accessed January 26, 2012, Popenoe D., Whitehead BD (1999), 'Should we live together? What young adults need to know about cohabitation before marriage. THE NATIONAL MARRIAGE PROJECT: The Next Generation Series, New Jersey, accessed January 14, 2012, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, (1995), 9th ed., Oxford University Press Inc., New York. Whitehead, BD and Popenoe, D (2000), “Sex without strings, relationships without rings”, The State of Our Unions, The Social Health of Marriage in America, The National Marriage Project, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey , p. 13, New Jersey. Whitman, S. (2003), “Shacking up: The smart girl's guide to living in sin without getting burned”, Broadway, Washington.