3 Reasons Why Peruvians Prefer Not to Get Married

Many people ask me about whether they should marry their Peruvian boyfriend or girlfriend and what documents are required to get married in Peru. Marriage is not as popular as it used to be even though most Peruvians perceive themselves as being Catholic. Catholicism condones living together before marriage (ie living in sin) as well as having children out of wedlock (ie illegitimate children).
This does not mean that Peruvians are practicing what they're preaching.  Despite all this, many Peruvians prefer to have partners (parejas) rather than get married. I think there are three main reasons for this.
Peruvians aren't as Catholic as they think they are

From www.chattycatholics.blogspot.com

I, personally, would refer to them as lapsed Catholics, meaning that they'd probably only attend church for weddings, funerals, Easter, and Christmas. While I don't think that you have to go to church to be religious, I also don't see them practice what they're preaching.
Despite the number of times I see it I'll always find it a bit disturbing to see people shouting or arguing on the bus, pass a church, and frantically cross themselves many times over, and then go back to shouting or arguing. It's almost a superstition rather than a relgion in my opinion.
Divorce is painful
People get divorced for different reasons, some people fall out of love, others realize they are more different than they thought, others were taken advantage of by bricheros orbricheras.  Going to marry a Peruvian? Make an effort to learn a bit about the culture and language. Two programmes I recommend are Synergy Spanish and Fluent in 3 Months.
Despite being common, divorce isn't easy; few divorces are truly amicable. Divorce tends to bring out the worst in people even with spouses who get along, but just don't love each other anymore. People fight about money, children, material goods, retirement portfolios, and even friends. Skeletons come out of the closet and the people become very bitter as divorce drags on.

From millennialinflux.com

Peru's becoming more liberal
Along with many countries around the world, things that were once taboo, such as living together before marriage, having sex before marriage, having kids outside of marriage, gay rights, abortion, and so on, are not only accepted, but people who disagree with these topics are often perceived as being old-fashioned or backwards.
Look at the picture on the right. Well 38% of people surveyed think it's a bad thing to live together, 50% don't think it matters at all and 10% actually think it's good. The people who think it's bad are in the minority and that number's just going to decrease in the future as people become more foward minded.