According to Optimizing the Marriage Market study done by a group of experts from Switzerland and the UK, the couples in which the husband is older and the wife is smarter make a stronger family.
Scientists studied 1,074 Swiss married couples over five years and rated them using several criteria, including age, education and origin. They found that couples in which both partners were not previously divorced, the husband is five years senior his partner and the woman has a higher level of education make stronger families.
If a woman is five or more years younger than her husband, such couple is six times more likely to stay together. If both partners are well-educated, their chance to keep the family is two times better than an average level. If a woman is more educated than a man, the chances of such couple increase by eight times.
The study says that women and men are looking for a partner based on love, sexual desire, similarity of preferences and views and shared values. The experts, however, say that considering such objective factors as age, education and origin can help lower the risk of divorce in future.
Scientists take Beyonce and Jay-Z as example of a couple that has every chance to have a long and happy family life because the husband is 11 years older than his wife and the wife is more educated. On the other hand, the scientists estimate the chance of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas as lower because Douglas had a marriage experience before.
Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/hamedmasoumi.
