Consensual unions in Spain: A reality on the rise

This paper analyses the incidence and temporal evolution of cohabitation in Spain. On the first part, the diffusion of consensual unions is examined through the proportion of women living in cohabitation at a specific moment comparing data drawn from the 1981- 1990 and 2001 census (cross-sectional). Instead, the second part is dedicated to the study of women who had entered cohabitation as a first union by birth cohorts (longitudinal) with the data of the most recent Spanish Family and Fertility Survey of 2006. Both measures give necessarily as results different magnitudes, but provide some clues about the rising advancement of cohabitation in Spain.