Housework and social media are also driving a rift between couples.
Vietnam has lost its crown as the country with the most satisfied lovers in the region according to a new survey that asked people how much their primary relationships fulfilled them.
Its score dropped 4 percentage points from 2016 to 79 percent last year, as shown in the relationship scores for partners in the second edition of the Prudential Relationship Index (PRI).
In 2017, Cambodia had the highest relationship scores for partners out of the nine markets surveyed with 82 percent, followed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. The average score for the region in 2017 was 67.
The reasons why love left the air in Vietnam last year can be found with a closer look of the survey conducted by the Hong Kong-based Prudential Corporation Asia, which specializes in life insurance and asset management in 14 Asian markets.
Nearly half, or 46 percent, of Vietnamese said drinking or smoking were a common source of arguments between partners.
When asked who does most of the housework, only 14 percent of men said they did but up to 93 percent of women said it was them. The average ratios in the region were 78 percent for women and 34 percent for men.
Housework is one of the top causes of argument between partners in Asia aside from money, lack of attention, children, drinking and smoking, and spending too much time on the phone or computer, not least on social media.
When asked if they were often upset by their partners’ posts on social media, Vietnamese scored the highest with up to 40 percent compared to the average proportion of 29 percent in the region.
Overall, 85 percent of couples in the region said their relationships were better than when they first met their partners.
Indonesia scores the highest on that ranking with 94 percent, while Vietnam finished at the bottom of the pile with 75 percent.
When asked to make predictions for the year 2050, more than three-quarters of respondents thought that divorce would be socially acceptable by that year. The highest proportion of those people was found in Vietnam with 87 percent.
However, most Vietnamese said they’d prefer to stick with their current partners as only 2 percent seriously considered breaking up at least once a week compared to the average rate of 18 percent in the region and the highest rate of 28 percent in Thailand.
The survey interviewed 4,600 adults from nine regional countries. Most, 71 percent, of surveyed individuals were married, a further 15 percent had a boyfriend or girlfriend and 14 percent were single and unattached.
Source: Minh Nga