The Lessons Couples Learn From Living Apart Together

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4.4 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

Does distance really make the heart grow fonder?

A growing number of couples who are choosing to live apart together (LAT) seem to think so. These lovers are in a committed relationship but live or sleep separately.

Between 2000 and 2022, the percentage of married couples who decided to live apart grew by more than 40 percent. The trend has been driven mainly by older women.

New research from a U.K. household study found that older couples who decided to live in separate places have better mental health.

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, we discuss what living apart together looks like.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Planet Money is there.
0:01.8	From California's most expensive fires ever...
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0:06.0	Yeah.
0:06.6	Grew up there.
0:07.7	It's ashes.
0:09.2	To the potentially largest deportation in U.S. history.
0:12.9	They're going to come to the businesses.
0:14.3	They're going to come to the restaurants.
0:15.7	They're going to come here.
0:17.2	Planet Money.
0:18.2	We go to the places at the center of the story.
0:20.8	The Planet Money podcast We go to the places at the center of the story, the Planet Money podcast
0:22.5	from NPR.
0:27.7	Does distance really make the heart grow fonder? A growing number of couples who are choosing
0:37.4	to live apart together,
0:39.0	also known as Lat, seem to think so. These couples are in a committed relationship, but live or
0:44.0	sleep separately. Between 2000 and 2022, the percentage of married couples who decided to live apart
0:50.6	grew by more than 40 percent. That's according to Scripps News analysis of census data.
0:55.7	The trend has also mainly been driven by older women. New research from a UK household study
1:01.1	suggests that older couples who decided to live apart together have better mental health.
1:06.2	It's also the most likely type of relationship for the over-60s crowd, with those couples opting 10 times more for
	...

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