Couples often met through religious institutions, work, school,or friends. "Dating services," services that are geared to assist people in finding partners, are popular both on and offline.
The trend over the past few decades has been for more and more couples deciding to cohabitate before, or instread of, getting married. The 2000 Census reported 9.7 million diffirent-sex partners living together and about 1.3 million same-sex partners living together. These cohabitation arrangement have not been the subject of many laws regulating them, though some states now domestic partners statues and judge-made palimony doctrines that confer some legal support for unmarried couples.