There's an ideal age to get married if you want to avoid divorce.

Disclaimer: If you got married at an age that isn’t this one, that doesn’t mean your relationship is destined to go down the drain. Please don’t shoot the messenger.

A new study claims to have discovered the ideal age for couples to tie the knot in order to decrease the chances of it ending in divorce.

Known as the Goldilocks Theory of getting married, it’s all about being not too young, not too old, but juuuust right.

Conducted by a sociologist at the University of Utah, the study analysed data from 2006-2010 and the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth and found those who got married between the ages of 28 and 32 break up less than couples who married earlier or later.

The results contradict the widely held belief that the longer you’re with someone, the more stable your marriage will be.

LISTEN: Apparently US Vice President, Mike Pence has rules for his marriage… do you? (post continues after audio..)

Conversely, this study supports another common view regarding the success of relationships that result in getting married at a young age – namely, that they don’t last.

One reason this data makes sense for some is the ‘life phases’ people within the 28 – 32 years old age bracket typically are in. If we were to adopt stereotypical conventions of where someone would be at various times in their life, a person within this age bracket could be described as someone who’s settled in their career path, has already travelled and gotten their gallivanting out of the way.

However, many were quick to dismiss the study’s findings, with a similar report finding the ideal age for marriage to avoid divorce is actually between 45 and 49.

So basically, the moral of the story is… probably don’t base your life decisions on a single research study. It does make for interesting reading though.

Do you agree with this study’s results? How old were you when you got married?