MARRIED couples are staying together longer, but "till death to us part" is still a forlorn hope for many a new bride.

A new Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) report reveals the average time couples go from being married to being separated now stands at 8.7 years, up from 7.5 in 1980.

The average time taken for couples to actually divorce has also increased from 10.2 years to 12.3 years.

But if that still makes you want to burn your wedding magazines and forget all your wedding dreams, the good news is that most of us are staying married for longer.

The Trends in Couple Dissolution report shows the number of marriages lasting less than 10 years have fallen - from 49 per cent in 1990 to 43 per cent in 2000 and 41 per cent in 2009.

The number of marriages lasting at least 20 years has increased from 20 per cent in 1980 to 24 per cent in 2000 and 28 per cent in 2009.

However, the news isn’t so good for Generation Y women with the report showing those who marry between 25-29 years of age are more likely to end up divorced than Gen X’s.

For example, twenty in every 1000 married women aged 25-29 ended up divorced in 2006, compared to 18 in 1000 aged 35-39 years in the same period.

In contrast among married men, it was highest for those aged between 30-34 years, with the report suggesting this could be due to women marrying at a younger age than men.

The news isn’t so good for cohabitating couples either who are three to five times more likely to separate (25-38 per cent) than married couples (7 to 9 per cent).

In their report, authors Dr Lixia Qu and Ruth Weston, say it isn’t surprising given that cohabiting relationships are usually less stable than marriages.

“Some couples may embark on cohabitation as a trial marriage or as a prelude to marriage and others may live together for practical reasons without strong commitment,” they say.

