What Kind of Relationships Last the Longest?

If you’ve ever been involved in one, you are very aware that maintaining a rewarding and fulfilling relationship is no easy feat. Despite all the expert advice on how to build them better, and the inordinate amount of work it requires to keep them going, so many people enter into them, time and time again, with the idea that since they love the person, they are choosing. They understand that it takes work, beat the odds, and make their relationship through.

Although extremely commonplace, most people who get divorced end their relationships rather quickly within the first ten years.  According to statistics, 55 percent of all US married couples have been married for at least 15 years. That number then drops to 35 percent who stay married for 25 years, and only six percent celebrate their 50^th anniversaries.

If you are looking to scientific research to lead the way in determining which marriages last the longest, you most likely will be quite discouraged as studies seem to be chock full of conflicting results. Relationship researchers have delved into a variety of areas from which to base their studies. Age, ethnicity, religion and religious attendance, education level, employment status, income, and family size have all been studied to find the key determining factor to long-lasting relationships. As of yet, no particular category emerges as the victor.

What relationship experts do agree upon, however, is that people engaged in healthy relationships possess strong levels of trust and effective communication. These ingredients tend to increase emotional intimacy and closeness.

Love matters for sure, so do respect and compromise. We come up with rules like “never go to sleep angry” or “make sure the flame doesn’t flicker when children enter the picture,” but what truly matters is that sense of connection, the connection that comes with knowing that who I am and how I matter to my partner.

For a relationship to stand the test of time and make it through the bumps and curves that life throws our way, we need to feel that type of bond. That is the glue that keeps people together.