In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s Valentine’s day. And what better way to celebrate love than to reduce it down to data and statistics. There aren’t many things sexier than a colour coded bar chart after all.
Days like today can be tricky for those in long-distance relationships. And in our increasingly connected world, more and more of us are falling under that label. According to a survey conducted last month by YouGov and ParcelHero, 40% of people in the UK have, at some point, been in a long-distance relationship.
The bar chart below shows the reasons people gave for doing long-distance. Perhaps unsurprisingly, in the 16-24 age bracket, the most common reason was going to universities in different cities.
A thank you to the internet?
There’s a lot of bad stuff to be said about the internet, but one thing you have to give to it is its ability to connect people. Where would we be without video calling and voicenotes? Imagine the only option being ordinary mail, and having to wait 2-3 working days for your letter to get from A to B. It’d take a week just to have one back-and-forth exchange.
Skype and Facetime have changed the game for keeping in touch with loved ones: romantic partners and far-away friends and family alike. We haven’t forgotten about the good old-fashioned phone call though – 70% of 16-24-year olds still use these as a way to keep in touch with their long-distance partners. But video-calling comes out on top, at 77%.
And the internet is doing a lot more than helping people keep in touch. Tinder might have a bad rep, but around a third of relationships started between 2015 and 2019 began online1. And to take this a step further, 6% of people in long-distance relationships have never met their partners. With 35% of those being under 25, it does seem that the internet is transforming our relationships.
So, whatever your label this 14th February, and whether you think today is the most romantic day of the year, or a capitalist scam… happy Valentine’s day! If nothing else, it is a good excuse to do something nice for the people you love, be that platonically or romantically. And to give some business to your favourite card, chocolate, and flower shops (like ParcelHero, just as a random example).
1 https://news.sky.com/story/finding-love-online-more-than-half-of-couples-set-to-meet-via-the-internet-11871341
All graphics © ParcelHero
ParcelHero’s original blogpost on the data below:
