Because of darn 7! In this relationship year, most couples separate

Main thing to the eighth hold out, the main thing to the eighth stick, main thing to the eighth stick, ... ? Surely many people think about their partnership in the same way. After all, the "darn seventh year" is considered the year of separation! But is there something else? Or is the "darned seventh" nothing more than a myth?

The most dangerous relationship years according to statistics

The American sociologist Michael Rosenfeld has long since clarified this question! For several years, the Stanford University professor accompanied more than 3,000 couples for his "How couples meet and stay together" study and periodically updated them on their relationship status. Based on the data, he calculated in which year of relationship the highest separation risk exists. And now hold on: The most dangerous and critical year in the partnership is therefore the first!

60 percent of Rosenfeld's relationships were broken before the first anniversary? despite being in love, butterflies in the stomach and pink glasses. According to the Stanford study, the probability of separation drastically diminishes: with unmarried couples every year by 10 percent, but only up to the fifth, the risk suddenly drops significantly more slowly. And in the seventh? No kink in the curve! So if you want to pass the buck for the year except the first one, then that's the fifth one ? after all, the dive of the separation rate comes to a standstill.

Incidentally, another statistic also speaks in favor of the "darn fifth year": According to the Federal Statistics Office, the most common divorces in 2017 were married couples who had previously lived together for five years (after the wedding). Suspicious, suspicious!

When did you make it?

But how long do you have to "hold out" in the partnership? When will you be safe? Honestly, according to the Rosenfeld survey, never really? especially if one does without the ring on the finger: Thus, the likelihood that they decide to go their separate ways, with unmarried hetero-couples after 15 years together still at 12 percent (in homosexual only at five). And after 25 years, even the risk of separation from unmarried partners rose again.

Married couples, according to Rosenfeld, do not have much to worry about on average (separation rate according to his survey after 20 years at less than one percent), but they too should never be too sure: Every sixth divorce, according to our Federal Statistics Office, happens after 25 years of marriage or more.

Oh dear, how complicated! No wonder that the simple "darned seventh" fits better in the minds ... but what do we learn from all this? That in turn is quite simple: pay less attention to the calendar? and more on our feeling!