As per the last census in 2011, there were 71 million single women in India—defined as those who never married, were widowed or divorced. This was an increase of 39% from the previous such exercise, making up 12% of the entire female population.
However, one wonders if Census 2027, when completed, will give as clear an indicator of single people in the country. It is likely to include people who are cohabiting or living-in within the category of “married”. It is probable that when the new data is out, the numbers may increase even further.
We have seen reports of single women carving out different types of living arrangements or choosing to forego marriage, a pattern that is becoming increasingly common across urban India. But for an accurate count of single people, the demographic categories need to be clear and bounded.
There are good reasons for this. For one, cohabiting couples are likely to differ from couples who have never lived together before marriage on a number of indicators. A 2023 paper titled Premarital Cohabitation, Marital Dissolution, and Marital Quality in China suggests that cohabitation and marriage are different in terms of legal status and social recognition.
In Japan, cohabitation is seen as a prelude to marriage, while in Thailand, institutionalisation of cohabitation is low, leading to a difference in mortality rates from marriage. By enumerating cohabiting couples in “stable unions” as married, Census 2027 is committing grave empirical errors: it presents inaccurate data on the number of married and single individuals, skewing it in favour of married couples.
Cohabitation and Marriage
Enumerating cohabiting couples is important because it signals a change in norms and value systems. Some might argue this also indicates greater agency for women since they are less likely to be coerced into cohabiting relationships and have greater choice to leave if they face violence or are unhappy. Based on anecdotal data, more women are choosing not to marry or opting out of marriages for a range of reasons from unequal partnerships to professional aspirations.
Cohabiting couples tend to be overlooked: they have many of the social and financial benefits that married couples have, but since they are not legally married, they are more similar to single people who choose not to get married.
Counting cohabiting couples as married can be seen as a clever way of increasing the number of married individuals whereas in reality, one is seeing a global decrease in marriage rates.
Merging cohabiting and married people also has welfare implications—a lower count of single people will reduce the necessity for welfare measures for them. India, like most countries, grants benefits to married people that single people have little access to, such as naming a “chosen family” member or friend on health insurance or fixed deposit.
Having an accurate count of singles, married and cohabiting people separately constitutes an important pathway to make singles lobby for more benefits for themselves, such as avoiding housing discrimination or making medical decisions for close friends.
Ketaki Chowkhani is assistant professor, Manipal Institute for Social Sciences Humanities and Arts, Manipal. Sreeparna Chattopadhyay is associate professor, Manipal School of Law, Bengaluru.