Are marriages in danger of the five-year itch?

If Marylyn Monroe and Tom Ewell's onscreen characters are anything to go by then every couple should start to worry around the time of their seven-year anniversary that something is going to go wring in their relationship.

However, a new study has discounted the fictitious tale of the 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch and instead suggested that many couples are now experiencing a five-year itch instead.

According to a new report from researchers in the US, Russia and Scandinavia who looked into the longevity of relationships, most people begin to get a bit fed up with each other after four years and they are at the greatest risk of divorce after five years.

The report for the Max Planck Institute in Rostock, Germany also noted that most divorces are likely to happen during a couple's fifth and tenth wedding anniversaries and that if they manage to get through this patch it is likely that they will stay together forever.

Lead researcher Aiva Jasilioniene commented: "One of the explanations for these changes in divorce risk is that during the first decade of marriage both partners go through crucial life-course transitions and challenging experiences - completion of education, building [a] career, bearing children, and so on. During the later years, the couple have developed strategies to deal with problems as they arise."

In 2006, the number of divorces in Britain was 132,418, the lowest the figure has been for almost 30 years.

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