16% of Brits have told a new romance that they love them within their first month together

Matthew SmithHead of Data Journalism
July 05, 2017, 12:25 PM GMT+0

Following Marcel’s swift declaration of love for Gabby on Love Island, YouGov asks Britons how quickly they have told someone they love them

Monday on ITV’s phenomenally popular show Love Island saw former Blazin Squad member Marcel drop the L-bomb on fellow contestant Gabby. Having met only a few weeks ago, Marcel slipped “I love you” accidentally-not-accidentally into their conversation, before trying to style it out with a cough.

Gabby wasn't buying it though, accusing Marcel of throwing the term about too much and saying “I just think when people throw it around it doesn’t mean as much. You don’t love me yet.” Whilst Gabby might think it is too soon to hit someone with the L-word, new YouGov Omnibus research finds that as many as 16% of Brits have told someone they love them within the first month of being with them.

In fact, a particularly rapid 3% of Brits have told a new flame that they love them within just one week of being together. An additional 13% of fast movers declared their love in between one week and the end of the first month of their relationship.

The most commonly given answer was that the soonest Brits have said “I love you” to a new partner was within the two or three months of having been together, at 22%. A further 14% of Brits have never uttered the three magic words more quickly than the first 4-6 months of their romance, while 11% took longer than 6 months.

One in ten (10%) Brits might seem either unromantic or unlucky in love, being that they have either never told a partner they love them or have never been in love. Fortunately for those of us invested in the love lives of our fellow citizens, this is not a sign of large numbers of Brits going through life without love – instead the majority of these people are in the 18-24 year old age group, and their lack of romance is just a sign of their youth.

As it happens, there are still two days left to apply for Love Island if they feel like speeding things along.

Photo: ITV

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