This is how long it takes most people to say "I love you"

Something big happened on Monday night’s Love Island.

For the benefit of the four people in Britain not watching ITV2’s ridiculously popular reality TV show, former Blazin’ Squad member Marcel told fellow contestant Gabby he loved her, despite the fact they only met a few weeks ago. 

It being a game show and all that, a cynic might say his use of the big L was more tactical than anything else, but in the clip he starts frantically clearing his throat after it slips out in a very “oh shit, I just did that” kind of way. 

Gabby, a realist, was quick to assure Marcel he couldn’t possibly love her yet, but even so, it got YouGov thinking about how many people have made a similar declaration within the first month of being with someone. 

The answer? Not loads, but more than you might think. Their research found that 16% of Brits have said it, which isn’t that far off a fifth of the population. As many as 13% have told someone they love them between one week and the end of the first month of their relationship, while 3% confess they’ve said it IN THE FIRST WEEK. They weren’t surveying Disney Princes here. This is real life. 3%. One week. Believe it.

Here are the overall results, which are weighted to be representative of the GB population.

The data reveals that people aged 18-24 are the most likely to declare love in week one (5%), while men (4%) are slightly more likely to do so than women (2%). With 22% (a majority) of the total sample, the soonest most people had said the three magic words was by the third month, while 2% said it’s taken as long as two years. 

Click here to see the full breakdown.