Smoking, age, cash determine fate of romance

Forget romance. Australian researchers have pointed out that smoking, kids, age and cash were among key indicators of whether a marriage or partnership will survive.

The study, entitledu00a0 'What''s Love Got To Do With It', by Australian National University found that the reasons that a couple stays together boil down to a lot more than love.

Report author Dr Rebecca Kippen discovered age, previous relationships and smoking habits were among other factors that determine the fate of a relationship, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The research followed 2,500 couples who were married or living together over a six year period.

According to the figures, a quarter of relationships will end within six years and half within 25 years, the paper said.

The chances of divorce were doubled in a husband who was nine or more years older than his wife or in the case of husbands who tie the knot before turning 25, the study found.

One in five couples who have children before marriage later went separate ways while women who want kids much more than their partners were also more likely to divorce.

The report further said that money also played to a significant role in keeping a couple together with sixteen per cent of respondents who had a low income or where only the husband was unemployed divorced during the study.

Only nine per cent of couples with good financial backing divorced.

And relationships where only one partner smokes or where the wife was a heavier drinker than her husband, are also more likely to end in failure.

Factors which appeared to be less important included country of birth, religious background, education levels, the number and age of children born to a married couple, the wife''s employment status and the number of years the couple had been employed.