美調查：婚姻比同居長久

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.

美國疾病控制中心本週二發佈報告稱，美國的婚姻關係比非婚同居關係維持得更爲長久。

美國約78%的婚姻關係可維持五年或五年以上，而相比這下，只有不到30%被該機構稱爲非婚同居的關係可維持這麼久。

疾病控制中心在一項聲明中說，同居不如婚姻長久的一個原因就是，51%的同居伴侶在（同居）三年內就結婚了。

在2002年訪問開展期間，年齡在15歲到44歲的男性和女性中有超過40%的人已婚，9%的人處於同居狀態。該報告基於在全國範圍內對12571名男性和女性開展的一項抽樣調查。

其他研究結果包括：

報告發現，同一種族的夫婦頭婚維持十年或更長時間的機率更大。

在頭婚至少八個月後有了第一個孩子的夫婦中，近80%的婚姻可維持十年。而沒有孩子的夫婦婚姻持續不到十年的機率高一倍多。

結婚時男女雙方年齡在26歲或以上的夫婦中，大約有75%的婚姻至少能持續十年，相比之下，只有約一半的青少年早婚能維持這麼久。

Vocabulary:

matrimony:結婚；婚姻