Married couples in Rome stay together for an average of 18 years, longer than any other major city in the world, a new analysis suggests.
Online magazine Hopes & Fears analysed demographic data from multiple sources to rank urban centres by the amount of time married couples living there typically stay together.
The figure of 18 years for the Italian capital is for the include completion of the couple’s divorce. The average time until separation was 15 years. However, this was still longer than the second city on the list, Ottawa in Canada, where married couples stay together for an average of 13.8 years. Paris – despite a national divorce rate of 55 per cent – came in at number three on the list, with an average marriage length of 13 years.
London, meanwhile, only made to number eight on the list, thanks to an average marriage duration of just 11 years, below New York City (12.2 years), Sydney (12 years), Mexico City and Tokyo.
Across the UK, the median length of marriage is slightly higher, and the average divorce rate now stands at 42 per cent. The majority of these divorces – 34 per cent – occur before the couple’s 20th wedding anniversary, and most of these occur between the couple’s fourth and eighth anniversaries.
The lowest ranked city was Doha, capital of Qatar, where marriages last an average of just 5.5 years. The magazine notes:
“As of a report from 2011, 60% of couples split within five years, with many not even consummating the marriage.”
Read more here.
Photo of Rome by Jastrow via Flickr