美调查：婚姻比同居长久

US marriages last longer than unions where couples live together outside matrimony, the Centers for Disease Control reported on Tuesday.

About 78 percent of marriages lasted five years or more, compared with less than 30 percent of what the CDC called cohabiting unions, or couples living together outside marriage.

One reason cohabitations were shorter-lived than marriages is that 51 percent of couples who lived together made the transition to marriage within three years, CDC said in a statement.

Over 40 percent of men and women aged 15-44 were married in 2002 when the interviews were conducted, compared with 9 percent who were living together. The report was based on a nationally representative sample of 12,571 men and women.

Other findings:

The odds of staying together 10 years or longer in a first marriage are better for couples of the same racial origin, the report found.

Nearly 80 percent of couples who have their first child at least eight months after their first marriage are likely to celebrate their 10th anniversary; those who don't have children are more than twice as likely not to last 10 years.

About 75 percent of marriages between men and women 26 years old or older last at least 10 years, compared with only about half of teen marriages.

美国疾病控制中心本周二发布报告称，美国的婚姻关系比非婚同居关系维持得更为长久。

美国约78%的婚姻关系可维持五年或五年以上，而相比这下，只有不到30%被该机构称为非婚同居的关系可维持这么久。

疾病控制中心在一项声明中说，同居不如婚姻长久的一个原因就是，51%的同居伴侣在（同居）三年内就结婚了。

在2002年访问开展期间，年龄在15岁到44岁的男性和女性中有超过40%的人已婚，9%的人处于同居状态。该报告基于在全国范围内对12571名男性和女性开展的一项抽样调查。

其他研究结果包括：

报告发现，同一种族的夫妇头婚维持十年或更长时间的几率更大。

在头婚至少八个月后有了第一个孩子的夫妇中，近80%的婚姻可维持十年。而没有孩子的夫妇婚姻持续不到十年的几率高一倍多。

结婚时男女双方年龄在26岁或以上的夫妇中，大约有75%的婚姻至少能持续十年，相比之下，只有约一半的青少年早婚能维持这么久。

Vocabulary:

matrimony:结婚；婚姻