statistics
No darn 7: Most couples split up in this relationship year
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Which year is the most dangerous for a relationship? So much in advance: the seventh is – statistically speaking – definitely not!
The main thing is to hold out until the eighth, the main thing to hold out until the eighth, the main thing to hold out until the eighth, … – I am sure many people think the same way about their partnership. After all, the “darn seventh year” is considered the year of separation par excellence! But is there anything to it? Or is the “darn seventh” nothing more than a myth?
The most dangerous relationship years according to statistics
The American sociologist Michael Rosenfeld clarified this question long ago! For several years the Stanford University professor accompanied his study “How couples meet and stay together” (“How couples meet and stay together”) more than 3,000 couples and regularly obtained updates from them about their relationship status. On the basis of the data, he calculated the year in which the relationship had the highest risk of separation. And now hold on tight: The most dangerous and critical year in the partnership is therefore the first!
60 percent of the relationships that Rosenfeld had on the note broke before the first anniversary – despite being in love, butterflies in the stomach and rose-colored glasses. After that, according to the Stanford study, the probability of separation drops drastically: For unmarried couples by 10 percent every year, but only up to the fifth, from then on the risk suddenly drops much more slowly. And in the seventh? No kink in the curve! So if you wanted to push the buck to one year other than the first, then the fifth – after all, this is where the nosedive of the separation quota comes to a halt.
By the way, another statistic speaks for the “darned fifth year”: Loud Federal Statistical Office The most common divorces in 2017 were couples who had previously been together (after the wedding) for five years. Suspicious, suspicious!
When did you make it?
But how long do you have to “hold out” in the partnership? When are you safe? According to the Rosenfeld survey, to be honest, never really – especially not if you do without the ring on your finger: So the probability that they decide to go their separate ways was with unmarried hetero couples after 15 years together it was still 12 percent (in the case of homosexuals only five). And: after 25 years, the risk of separation even increased again for unmarried partners.
According to Rosenfeld, married couples need to worry much less on average (according to his survey, the separation rate after 20 years is less than one percent), but they too should never be too sure: Every sixth divorce, according to our Federal Statistical Office, happens after 25 years of marriage or more.
Oh dear, how complicated! No wonder that the simple “darn seventh” sticks better in the mind … but what do we learn from all of this? This, in turn, is very simple: Pay less attention to the calendar – and more to our feelings!
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