New York, Mar 4 (ANI): Living together before marriage does not increase chances of divorce, a new study claims.

The new report from the National Center for Health Statistics, based on the National Survey of Family Growth conducted in 2002, challenges the prevalent belief that couples who live together before marriage are more likely to part ways.

The study surveyed 13,000 men and women between the ages of 15 to 44.

It found that 71percent of men who were engaged when they moved in with their future first wife made it to their 10th anniversary, while men who didn’t cohabit before getting married, the success rate dropped slightly to 69 percent.

Also, statistics were close for women, with 65percent of cohabiting engaged couples standing the test of time, compared to 66 percent of women who waited until the marriage was official to shack up.

Meanwhile, the likelihood of an unmarried cohabiting couple lasting the decade after marriage was 55percent.

Statistician Bill Mosher, the report’s co-author, insisted differences between pre-marital cohabitors and only-after-marriage couples “are there, but they are not huge”.

“The nature of commitment at the time of cohabitation is what’s important,” The New York Daily News quoted Scott Stanley, co-director of the Center for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver, as telling USA today. (ANI)