For anyone trying to figure out what makes for a successful marriage nowadays, the scrap of doggerel1 in the title of this report isn’t a bad place to start.

According to a new Pew Research Center survey of American adults, “sharing household chores” now ranks third in importance on a list of nine items often associated with successful marriages – well ahead of such staples as adequate income, good housing, common interests and shared religious beliefs. Well ahead, even, of children (for more on attitudes about marriage and parenthood, see the Pew Research Center report “As Marriage and Parenthood Drift Apart, Public Is Concerned about Social Impact“).

Some 62% of adults say sharing household chores is very important to marital success. On this question, there’s virtually no difference of opinion between men and women; or between older adults and younger adults; or between married people and singles.

Another three-in-ten adults says sharing household cores is “rather important” to a successful marriage. Just 7% say it is “not very important.”

In the public’s ranking of keys to a successful marriage, “sharing household chores” still trails far behind the perennial leader — “faithfulness” –which is rated as very important by 93% of survey respondents. But household chores are now nipping at the heels of the second-place item – “happy sexual relationship,” which draws a very-important rating from 70% of survey respondents.

It hasn’t always been this good for household chores.

Back in 1990, fewer than half (47%) of adults said sharing household chores was very important to a successful marriage. In the 17 years since then, no other item on the list has risen in importance nearly as much. And this rise has come all across the demographic landscape – among men as well as women, among marrieds as well as singles; among old as well as young.

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