Seven-year itch myth of marriage busted

Researchers have invalidated five commonly accepted but incorrect assumptions often heard in daily life.



Most of the people believe that half of all marriages end in divorce but social analysts McCrindle Research has showed that one in three, and not one in two, marriages will end in divorce.

The next myth, which the Australian Bureau of Statistics-based research considered, was ‘seven-year itch’. The study revealed that average marriage lasts longer than seven years.



Average separation is 8.8 years and average divorce 12.3 years.



The study also disapproved ‘baby bonus fertility’ myth. It asserted that fertility rate of teenage and young mums has not increased with the baby bonus introduction.



Shedding light on ‘booming population’ assumption, the research showed that world’s population of seven billion is not greater than the total number of people who have ever lived.



Most of the people also tend to believe that ‘young people won’t outlive their parents’ but the research divulged that life expectancy has increased despite an increase in childhood obesity.



Mark McCrindle said the myths had become accepted because figures and percentages had given them an element of believability.



"Marriages are actually doing better these days and the divorce rates are declining and have been for more than 30 years," he said.



"Not only is the rate declining but the total number of divorces is declining."

The introduction of the baby bonus incentive in 2002 was predicted to lead to an increase in the number of single and young mums.

However, Mr McCrindle said the birth rate of teenagers had dropped in the past 10 years.

“A 32-year-old (woman) is 10 times more likely to be having a baby than a 17-year-old (woman),” he said.

The research also showed that while childhood obesity had risen, the mortality rate of children was less than half the 0.4 deaths per 1000 recorded in 1990.