Poll Results: Your Perfect Partnership

Responses flew in for our “Designing the Perfect Partner” poll. Readers rated the following ten elements they would want in a soul-mate relationship, and the majority says:

#1 (most important): My partner and I can communicate

#2: We hold similar values

#3: We can easily work with each other through hard times

#4: We have compatible personalities

#5: We are attracted to each other

#6: We share life goals or a vision for the future

#7: We share a spiritual life and practice

#8: Our families like us together

#9: We live a similar lifestyle

#10, least important: We share activities and hobbies

We also questioned marital status. Unanimously, the most important quality in a partnership was communication, while the least important quality was shared hobbies. However, the in-betweens proved to be drastically different depending on one’s relationship status.

Married people showed the greatest prioritization of sharing a spiritual life with their partners—it was on average their #3. Perhaps marriage brings to light that a shared spiritual basis is what binds a couple together.

Unique to single people, whether once married or not, was they found it highly important for the couple’s families to support their relationship. The importance of family support appears to be magnified when you are not in a relationship. This is especially true for people who have gone through a divorce, which begs the question, “Was lack of family support a big reason for a couple not being able to stay together?”

We’ve learned a lot about how priorities shift over time. Why not take the poll and see how your responses match up to those in and out of your relationship category. For you singles out there, how does this affect your perspective as you seek to create your soul-mate relationship?

The Top 10 for each type of relationship status