A researcher in Sweden recently found that a long commute can up the risk of divorce.

Study author Erika Sandow of Umea University in Sweden said that a commute of more than 20 miles can increase the risk of divorce by 40 percent. According to UPI, the reason for this increase is that it decreases the commuter’s time with the family and forces the non-commuting spouse to take on more domestic duties, even though the longer commutes led to an increase in earnings.

Sandow said that such findings should be minded as more people are commuting farther to work.

“The trend is definitely pointing upward. Both the journey to work and the working hours are getting longer,” she told the English-language news source The Local. “We don’t know today what the increase in commuting will mean to society in the long run and it is important to look at the social costs involved as well.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were about 840,000 annulments or divorces in the United States during 2009, the last date for which data was available.

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