Your credit score could predict the success of your relationship

Most people know that their credit score will affect their ability to take out a loan, rent or own a home, and may even be factored into hiring decisions. But recent research from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve from Geng Li, Jessica Hayes and Economic Studies Fellow Jane Dokko suggests that it could actually offer important insight into another aspect of your life: who’ll you end up with romantically—and how long you’ll stay together.

Here’s why that’s the case, in 4 charts:

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People with high credit scores are more likely to form committed relationships.

According to the researchers, your credit score is a pretty good indicator of how likely you are to actually couple in the first place. Individuals with high credit scores are more likely to form committed relationships than other similar individuals, and when compared to the the highest-scoring singles, those with the lowest credit scores are about 30 percent less likely to form a relationship in a given year.

The researchers also found that people with high credit scores exhibited “substantial positive assortative matching”—i.e., high-score individuals ended up with other high-score individuals—even when controlling for other socioeconomic and demographic characteristics.

Your relationship is more likely to last if you have higher credit scores.

If you’re looking for clues as to whether you and your new significant other will be in it for the long haul, your credit scores might be a good indicator. The researchers found that when both partners enter a relationship with high scores, the odds that they’ll stay together increase. As the chart below shows, couples with the lowest initial average scores are two or three times more likely to separate than the couples with the highest average scores, and the likelihood of separation largely diminishes as scores increase.

The longer you and your partner are together, the closer your credit scores will get (And there’s a good chance your scores will flip).