POSSLQ ( , plural POSSLQs) is an abbreviation (or
acronym
An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...
) for "person of opposite sex sharing living quarters", a term coined in the late 1970s by the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of
cohabitation
Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a Romance (love), romantic or Sexual intercourse, sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. ...
in American households.
After the
1980 Census, the term gained currency in the wider culture for a time.
After
demographers observed the increasing frequency of cohabitation over the 1980s, the Census Bureau began directly asking respondents to their major surveys whether they were "unmarried partners", thus making obsolete the old method of counting cohabitors, which involved a series of assumptions about "persons of opposite sex sharing living quarters". The category "unmarried partner" first appeared in the
1990 Census, and was incorporated into the monthly
Current Population Survey
The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of about 60,000 U.S. households conducted by the United States Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS uses the data to publish reports early each month called the Em ...
starting in 1995. By the late 1990s, the term POSSLQ had fallen out of general usage (having been replaced by "
significant other") and returned to being a specialized term for demographers.
In popular culture
CBS commentator
Charles Osgood composed a verse which includes
Elliot Sperber, the writer of ''
The Hartford Courant''s weekly
cryptogram
A cryptogram is a type of puzzle that consists of a short piece of encrypted text. Generally the cipher used to encrypt the text is simple enough that the cryptogram can be solved by hand. Substitution ciphers where each letter is replaced by ...
, invented a cryptogram that (when solved) said:
In episode 20 of season 5 of the television show ''
Cheers
''Cheers'' is an American television sitcom, created by Glen and Les Charles, Glen Charles & Les Charles and James Burrows, that aired on NBC for eleven seasons from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/C ...
'',
Frasier Crane and
Lilith Sternin describe themselves as POSSLQs.
See also
*
Cohabitation in the United States
*
Common-law marriage
Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, de facto marriage, more uxorio or marriage by habit and repute, is a marriage that results from the parties' agreement to consider themselves married, follo ...
*
Family (U.S. census)
*
Significant other
References
External links
{{Wiktionary, POSSLQ
"How Does POSSLQ Measure Up? Historical Estimates of Cohabitation" a U.S. Census Bureau working paper by Lynne M. Casper, Philip N. Cohen and Tavia Simmons, May 1999.
Acronyms
Marriage, unions and partnerships in the United States
1970s neologisms