Initial findings from this year's British Social Attitudes Survey - carried out by The National Centre for Social Research - reveal that nearly half the adult population questioned thought that cohabiting partners get similar rights to married couples under a common law marriage.
In contrast, only 41% of respondents rightly say cohabiting couples are not in a common law marriage.
Responses also show that people are significantly more likely to believe in common law marriage when children come into the equation; 55% of households with children think that common law marriage exists, only 41% of households without any children do so.
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