I find this article very interesting from an international perspective. I am an American living in Sweden. When I moved here, I was shocked at the number of couples living together out of wedlock for long periods of time. It is not unusual at all for couples to simply choose never to marry. From a legal perspective there is no difference between being married and merely living together. This applies both to the custody of children as well as division of assets in the case of separation. I have no statistics on the number of children born to unwed parents, but I would guess that it must be much higher than in the US. It is actually somewhat unusual to marry before having children. It is more typical after the first or second child is born.

The aspect I find most interesting is that I think children in Sweden who are born out of wedlock do not suffer from the same disadvantages as those in the US. Then again, it must be noted that there is absolutely no stigma about abortion here, so there are almost no babies born who are not welcomed by their parents.

Well yes, but what you didn't mention, is that Sweden is practically a socialist country, inspite of being a constitutional monarchy. The gap between rich and poor over there is nowhere as big as in US; hence - the results for children born out of wedlock are quite different.

Just look at Swedish economy in Wikipedia, and please pay attention at these particular details;

"Sweden has had a unique economic model in the post World War 2 era, characterized by close cooperation between the government, labor unions and corporations. The Swedish economy has extensive and universal social benefits funded by high taxes, close to 50% of GDP."

...and, again -

"However, the reforms enacted during the 1990s seem to have created a model in which extensive welfare benefits can be maintained in a global economy.[4]"

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