Cohabitation can actually decrease a couple’s chances of getting married and increase their chances of divorce.

67 percent of live-ins never even get married in the first place. Source: Smock, P.J. & Gupta, “Cohabitation in Contemporary North America” (2002) and A. Booth & A.C. Crouter, “Just Living Together: Implications of Cohabitation on Families, Children and Social Policy.

Couples who cohabitate before marriage have an almost 50 percent higher rate of divorce than married couples who do not live together first.
Source: Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage in the United States. Data from the National Survey of Family Growth, Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control, 2002.

The desire to “test drive” a marriage can demonstrate a lack of understanding regarding the level of commitment needed to make a marriage work. This sows seeds of doubt and distrust from the start. Affairs are twice as common among couples who live together than for married couples.
Source: Judith Treas and Deirdre Geisen, “Sexual Infidelity Among Married and Cohabiting Americans,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 62 (February 2000): 48-60.

And, while marriage itself does increase commitment between cohabiting partners, those couples are still less sexually faithful after marriage than those married couples who did not live together first.
Source: Renata Forste and Koray Tanfer, “Sexual Exclusivity Among Dating, Cohabiting, and Married Women,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 58 (1996): 33-47.

Men and woman who choose not to cohabitate before marriage and to be abstinent before marriage are preparing to endure through tough times. True commitment is a result of making a decision to love and forgive the other daily, with all of his or her imperfections.