The transition from cohabitation to marriage in Spain: differences and determinants in same-sex and different-sex couples

Abstract Same-sex households and non-heterosexual people’s living arrangements are an expanding area of research in family studies. This contribution focuses on the transition from cohabitation to marriage of same-sex couples in comparison to different-sex couples in Spain, i.e., one of the pioneer countries of same-sex marriage that was legalized in 2005. In this particular context, we investigate to what extent same-sex couples and different-sex couples present similar marriage risks. Employing Event History Analysis and using data from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey, we find that, overall, same-sex couples have a significantly lower hazard of transitioning from non-marital cohabitation to marriage than different-sex couples. When restricting the sample to currently co-residing couples, the difference in the hazard of marriage between the two couple types remains negative but becomes insignificant. We thus disprove that same-sex couples have a higher incentive for marriage. These results are discussed in light of the different composition of same-sex vs different-sex couples in terms of their socio-demographic profile and motivations for marriage.