Using a life course perspective, I examine cohabitation in a cohort of Danish women and menborn in 1954, whom formed families as cohabitation became normative in the Danish context. Inaddition, this cohort was among the first cohorts to come of age in a well-established Danishwelfare state, which offered an opportunity structure quite different from what previousgenerations had experienced. This study uses nationally representative data from the DanishLongitudinal Survey of Youth (DLSY), which was initiated in 1968 when this cohort was age 14and concluded in 2001 when they were age 47. I use logistic regression and latent class clusteranalysis to examine the likelihood of ever forming a cohabiting union, to situate cohabitation inthe larger context of family life pathways, and to explore social circumstances as well aspersonal aspirations as determinants of the identified family life pathways