The vast majority of married couples are very happy with their marriage and almost all intend to remain with their partners for the rest of their lives, according to a major survey on the first seven years of marriage.
The research commissioned by Accord, the Catholic marriage support service, also shows that on average couples were co-habiting for three years before they got married.
The survey conducted by Amárach Consulting involved interviews with more than 700 couples from all religious backgrounds who married between 1999 and 2005. It excludes anyone who married and then separated or divorced. Both the husband and wife had to agree to the survey.
It found that couples were overwhelmingly positive about marriage, with 77 per cent reporting they were "very happy" with their marriages.
A further 86 per cent would recommend marriage to another couple intending to marry, while 98 per cent intend to remain married to the same person for the rest of their life.
The main benefits of marriage cited were family security (43 per cent), companionship (40 per cent), fulfilment (11 per cent) and love (8 per cent).
Most (63 per cent) said their marriage had strengthened over time, although this rate fell slightly the longer a couple were married (58 per cent for those married seven years).
The majority described themselves as "moderately religious" (63 per cent), followed by "not at all religious" (24 per cent) and "very religious" (6 per cent).
Most respondents were Catholic (88 per cent), no particular religion (4 per cent), Protestant (3 per cent), atheist (2 per cent), Muslim (1 per cent) or other (2 per cent). Overall, the report indicated that the traditional family arrangements of children being raised by both their natural parents was the one preferred by almost all married couples.
The Bishop of Killaloe and president of Accord, Dr Willie Walsh, said the results were "good news" for marriage.
"It reassures us that the deeply felt human need for a life-long loving relationship - which is marriage - is alive and well," he said.
He acknowledged that there was a "tension" between the teaching of the Catholic Church on sex before marriage and the numbers of people co-habiting, but did not express support for a reform of the Church's teaching in this area.
On the figures showing that most people are "moderately religious", he said the findings were very positive. "While they indicate that religious practice has declined among recently married couples, the scale of the decline is not as extreme as sometimes suggested in the media.
"This surely is a source of encouragement to us as priests who are involved in the pastoral care of marriage as sacrament," Dr Walsh said.
The chief executive of Amárach Consulting, Gerard O'Neill, said the findings were broadly in line with similar research conducted in the United Kingdom and the United States. He acknowledged, however, that there may be in-built bias in the results given that couples who are happier in their relationships may have been more likely to give interviews about their marriage.
