Research Finds That a Long Commute Adds to Your Chances of Divorce
Apparently very few people in America are fortunate enough to live close to the place where they work, as the new numbers show that, on average, we're driving nearly thirty minutes each way to and from work.
The U.S. Census Bureau, in its most recent report, shows that the average American's commute is 26.9 minutes, each way. It's a full two minutes longer than 2008 and though it seems insignificant, that's equivalent to an extra 20 minutes of drive time each week. The total commute time equates to 225 hours or nine full days, fighting off road rage and the urge to put that idiot driving 47 in the left lane on I-20 into the wall.
And here's some more comforting news. Apparently, if your commute is forty five minutes or longer, you might want to think about moving a little closer to the job or start thinking about what you'd like to keep after the divorce.
Hard to believe but apparently when you add a few extra minutes to your average work commute it means you're a lot more likely to hear the gavel of the divorce court judge.
Based on the findings of a ten-year study of married couples from 1995 to 2005, long commutes are strongly tied to divorce. Researchers found that if one of the people in a marriage had a commute of forty five minutes or more, they were 40% more likely to wind up divorced. Especially if it was the husband who was making the longer commute.
Also, the couples were most likely to get divorced within the first five years of their marriage. After five years, the marriage was more likely to survive the drive.