Created in 2000, legal cohabitation now seems to have reached cruising speed since 2011, with about 39,000 declarations a year. In 2022, there were 38,359 new declarations, i.e. a small increase of 1.6% compared to 2021 and a minor decrease of 0.2% compared to the average of cases for the period 2018-2021.
The number of legal cohabitation terminations increases by 18% compared to the average for 2018-2021. Here too, there may have been some catching up after the Covid period, since in 58.5% of cases, legal cohabitation gave way to marriage. Some couples therefore probably stayed cohabitant a little longer after postponing their wedding plans. In 36.3% of cases, one or both cohabitants chose to end their cohabitation. Finally, in 5.2% of cases, it was the death of one partner that brought the cohabitation to an end.
The average age at which a person enters into a partnership for the first time in the form of legal cohabitation is barely increasing: 31.8 for the first partner and 30 for the second. The duration of cohabitation at the time of termination continues to rise: it is 5.7 years on average for the country. This duration, like that of marriage before divorce, is slightly higher in Wallonia (5.9 years for cohabitations - 16.1 years for marriages) than in the other two regions (Brussels-Capital and Flanders: 5.5 years for cohabitations - 14.6 and 14.8 years respectively for marriages).