In Pew’s July 2022 survey, 11% of U.S. adults said they lived with a partner. Pew’s earlier 2019 analysis cited a 7% estimate from the Current Population Survey, and the two surveys used different dates, questions, and methods.
On this page
What an unmarried couple household means
The household record identifies someone as a partner rather than a roommate. Both partners live at the same address and are not married to each other.
That description is narrower than 'two people in a relationship.' A couple who maintain separate homes can be committed and unmarried but will not appear as one unmarried-partner household. A housemate who shares rent without a romantic relationship is also outside this partner category. The household estimate requires the relationship and a shared address to be identified together. When a survey asks a person to describe their own relationship status, it uses a different route to a similar-sounding label.
The Census Bureau's household surveys usually identify a spouse or partner through that person's relationship to the householder. A household may contain more than one relationship, but the published partner count does not map every romantic pairing among all people at the address. The number is useful for describing an observed living arrangement. It cannot count every unmarried couple in the country, especially those living apart.
Why the figures differ
The 7% figure comes from an earlier household measure, while the 11% figure comes from adults describing their relationship status in 2022. They are separate estimates, not a direct measure of growth.
Pew's 2022 survey asked U.S. adults which marital or relationship status best described them. Eleven percent selected 'living with a partner' in its published topline. That is a share of adults who answered the survey, rather than a count of couples or households. Pew's 2019 report cited a Current Population Survey estimate that 7% of all adults were currently cohabiting. Different survey questions, samples, and years can produce different estimates. Subtracting 7 from 11 would not isolate the effect of time.
A reader can use both numbers by naming the source and question. Say '11% of adults described themselves as living with a partner in Pew's July 2022 survey' when discussing relationship status. Say '7% of adults were currently cohabiting in the earlier household estimate Pew cited in 2019' when discussing that source. If the purpose is to measure growth, find the same series measured with a comparable method across years. These two headlines alone cannot do it.
Unmarried and unpartnered are different
An unmarried person can live with a partner, be engaged, or have a committed partner in another home. That is why our Census filter is labeled “not currently married.”
Pew's 2022 relationship-status summary helps make this distinction visible. It grouped 69% of U.S. adults as partnered: 51% married, 11% living with a partner, and 8% in a committed romantic relationship without that shared-home label. The displayed pieces can add to 70% because each percentage is rounded separately. The 8% demonstrates why a partnered person may be absent from a cohabiting-household count. A person can have a partner and still live at a different address.
Pew described 30% of adults as single under its survey definition, which concerns whether someone is married, living with a partner, or in a committed romantic relationship. Among single adults, only some were looking for dates or a relationship. A filter for 'not currently married' includes people in several different situations, including unmarried partners. It cannot stand in for 'single and looking.' If you use it in our calculator, read the label literally rather than treating it as a count of available partners.
Count people, not pairs
The 11% is a share of surveyed adults. It is not a count of unmarried couples and cannot simply be divided by two to produce one. Pew's sample represents adults; it does not require both members of a couple to respond. Some respondents' partners may be outside the sample altogether. An adult share and a household count can look similar in a headline while measuring different units. To estimate households, use a source whose unit is the household and whose relationship question identifies partners at one address.
Imagine a room representing 100 U.S. adults in Pew's 2022 survey. About 11 would describe themselves as living with a partner, based on the rounded estimate. About eight would describe themselves as in a committed romantic relationship without selecting that cohabiting category, and about 51 as married. The categories describe respondents; the illustration does not place any two of the 11 in a particular home. Adding the three rounded figures gives 70, while Pew's combined partnered estimate is 69 because each share was rounded separately.
This matters when a search result says 'one in nine couples are unmarried.' The Pew figure does not support that claim. Its denominator is all adults who answered a status question, including people with no current partner. A couple-level share would need a count of couple units in both the numerator and denominator. The site does not have that rate from the 11% alone, so keep the adult wording when you quote it.
A lifetime number answers another question
Pew's earlier cohabitation research found that 59% of adults ages 18 to 44 had ever lived with an unmarried opposite-sex partner. A person who did that years ago and now lives alone or is married can count in the 59%, while remaining outside today's unmarried-partner household count. The age range is also narrower than all adults. The lifetime figure says how common the experience had been in a particular group; it does not tell us how many couples share a home now.
A newer Pew analysis followed one birth cohort to ages 38 to 43 in 2023 and found that 77% had ever lived with an unmarried romantic partner. Its design and age window differ from the older relationship-history survey. The gap between 59% and 77% is not a measured increase in current unmarried-couple households. If you need the history of living together, use the cohabitation guide, which keeps the cohort and current-status measures separate.
The practical choice is to name the unit before the percentage. A survey respondent, a shared household, a currently partnered adult, and a person who ever cohabited are four different things to count. The figures in this article can orient you to each one, but none tells how many unmarried people near you are available to date. That would require local, current relationship and search-status information the national totals do not contain.
Which unmarried-couple measure fits?
The table may be wider than the screen. Focus it and use the arrow keys to reach every column.
| Measure | Published estimate | What was counted |
|---|---|---|
| Living with a partner | 11% | All U.S. adults answering Pew's July 2022 status question |
| Currently cohabiting | 7% | All adults in an earlier Current Population Survey estimate cited by Pew in 2019 |
| Ever cohabited | 59% | Adults ages 18 to 44 in an older opposite-sex relationship-history analysis |
“Denominator” means the full group used to calculate a percentage or rate.
How to read it: The rows are not a time series. None alone is a count of all unmarried couples or of people currently looking to date.
Download the table (CSV) ↓