Is Living Apart Beneficial for a Couple?

More and more couples find the idea of living separately a good one. In the course of the survey, held from 8/29/14 to 11/26/14, Meetville (dating app to find the right person) posed the following question “What is your attitude towards the idea when partners live separately but meet at the neutral territory?”

Voters represented the following countries: USA – 65%, Canada – 4%, Britain – 10%, Australia – 6% and other countries – 15%. Out of 56,202 respondents 61% claim they’re not against to live apart from their partner.

Sasha Roseneil, a professor from Birkbeck’s Department of Psychosocial Studies, admits: “Nowadays very few people settle into a life-long relationship in their early twenties and stay with their partner “until death us do part”. For some people, more or less consciously, living apart together is a way of dealing with the messiness of intimate life today, protecting themselves, their children and their homes from some of the distress that they have previously experienced when a cohabiting relationship breaks down.”

Although many people want to live separately, there are those who may consider such relationships incomplete. Constance Rosenblum, an article writer, states: “The idea of a couple living under separate roofs can still raise eyebrows, which is why many two-roof couples remain skittish about going public about their situation. They worry about losing a killer apartment or simply jinxing a good thing. Some are loath to admit to being party to such an arrangement, afraid that it might signal that a relationship isn't serious.”

In fact such kind of relationships is quite usual among couples. Sam Webb, an article writer, says: “There is a common assumption that people who choose not to live with their partner are either wealthy celebrity couples – such as Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton – or are professional couples forced to live apart because of their jobs, say the authors.”

Alex Cusper, Meetville service analyst, explains the results: “Due to the pressures every modern relationship faces today, it’s no wonder that many couples in committed relationships prefer not to share a home. There are plenty of ways they can stay in touch with their partners with the help of modern technology.”

Meetville, a leading mobile dating service, regularly conducts research among its users. Millions of people from the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia answer hundreds of questions every month. You can find the results of the poll here. If you are interested in research on a particular topic, please contact us. Any reprint of the material should be followed by clickable links to the survey.