Here's the ideal age gap for a lasting relationship

While there may be multiple reasons for breakups, did you ever realise that your age could play a key role in determining the fate of your relationship?

A recent study found that the length of your relationship depends on the age gap between you and your partner.

Andrew Frances and Hugo Mialon from Emory University in Atlanta, conducted a study on 3000 people to find a relation between age gaps and split ups, reports Independent.

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The findings suggested that the larger the age gap, the more likely it is that you and your partner will split up.

Here are the chances of breaking up, depending on your age gap:

5 years -- 18 per cent

10 years -- 39 per cent

20 years -- 95 per cent

PHOTO: CATCHNEWS

So, what's the ideal age gap? One year.

The findings suggested that a couple with an age gap of a year has a three percent chance of getting divorced.

Other statistical factors indicated that having a child before marriage resulted in 59 per cent less chances of divorce, while becoming parents after marriage resulted in 76 per cent less likely to split.

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Education is also one of the factors that affect divorce rates. If you have different levels of education, you are 43 per cent more likely to divorce, but the chances are reduced if you have been together for two years.

Result: Spend a decade together and you're 94 per cent less likely to divorce.

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Take the news with a pinch of salt however, as Mialon said in his study, "It could just be that the types of couples with those characteristics are the types of couples who are, on average, more likely to divorce for other reasons."

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