middle classes held high personal moral standards and rejected cohabitation. They have debated whether the working classes followed suit. Moralists in the late 19th century such as Henry Mayhew decried high levels of cohabitation without marriage and illegitimate births in London slums. However new research using computerized matching of data files shows that the rates of cohabitation were quite low—under 5% – for the working class and the urban poor. Falling marriage rates and increased births outside marriage have become a political issue, with questions of whether the government should promote marriage or focus on the status of a parent rather than a spouse; the Conservative Party support the former whilst Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats support the latter. There are also differences between England and Wales and Scotland, with the latter being more accepting of cohabitation. Bulgaria In Bulgaria, there has been a rapid increase in cohabitation after the fall of Communism. The transition from communism to market economy had a great impact on the demographic behavior of the population. After the fall of Communism, the legal and social pressure to get married has declined, and the population has started to experience new life styles. As of 2014, 58.8% of children were born to unmarried mothers. Czech Republic The marriage rates in Czech Republic have fallen dramatically during the past decades. In the 1970s to 1980s, about 96–97% of women married; in 2000 it was estimated that only 75% of women would ever marry. The age at first marriage for women has increased from being in the range of 21.4–21.8 years in the 1970s and 1980s, to being 29.6 in 2011. In the early 1990s, predictions were made by some Czech demographers that cohabitation would increase during the next decades; and indeed, there has been a marked increase in the number of people who live in non-marital couple relations. In 2016, 48.6% of births were to unmarried women. Germany Until the 1980s, it was illegal for unmarried couples to cohabitate, which made it impossible for many same-sex couples to live together. At this point the Bundesgerichtshof ruled that cohabitation could not be banned as it was protected by the Basic Law. As in other western societies, patterns of family life have been changing in Germany during the past decades. This has not created a moral panic, but has been seen more as an ongoing social evolution. Cohabitation, divorce