How many percent of all romantic relationships ends before death do
the partners apart? (I'm primarily interested in statistics from
countries where relationships are formed of free will in cultures
where it is "ok" to break out of a dissatisfying relationship.)

P.S. When divorce rates in married couples are almost 50%, then the total
end-of-relationship-rate must be much higher, maybe around 90%, quite
a grim outlook for people in their first relationship

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Clarification of Question by johanka-ga on 29 Jun 2006 23:54 PDT

With romantic relationships, I mean people who of free will have
mutually decided that they are an "offical couple".

So the romantic part might not be that important.

There is a fuzzy area, or maybe a need to define "relationship" more closely:

Some older couples just carry on in a relationship that younger
persons would consider dissatisfying  - especially if you are asking
about "romantic".

Interesting question but (in my humble opinion) it jumps a few guns.

I suggest that a better starting point would be to categorise why
marriages end prematurely.

Other questions (previously posted) have pointed to alcoholism,
domestic abuse, etc. These seem perfectly valid reasons. Maybe mental
health problems, infidelity, financial problems are among the others.

Yes, -many- older couples and some young stay in dissatisfying
relationships, some suggest that as little as 10-5% of couples that
don't divorce have truly satisfying relationships!

But I'm first and foremost interested in a the percentage of all
romantic (that start out romantic atleast) relationships that end
prematurely.

And I'm not interested in the reason, alchohol abuse or other. There
has been done some research on that already.

Does that include all "romantic" relationships? People one has dated
more than once? Live-ins? (For how long?) Online romances? Be more
specific :)