Marginally positive labor data couples with a series of economic indicators that have provided positive surprises.

FORBES: Data Suggest U.S. Growth Is Picking Up: GDP Could Expand 2.4% In Q3

After reviewing data on how married couples in the U.S. tackle housework, as well as self-reports of how often they enjoyed intercourse, sociologists at the University of Washington (UW) say that couples who shared the burden of chores -- cooking, cleaning and caring for the lawn -- tend to have the least active sex lives.

CNN: Why husbands who share household chores miss out on sex

Analyzing data of thousands of Norwegian couples, they found the divorce rate was higher for those doing equal amounts of housework than couples in which the women did more.

FORBES: Could Sharing Housework Equally Send You To Divorce Court?

Badgett, director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Williams Institute scholar Jody L. Herman reported that for 11 states that have some form of legal partnership for same-sex couples, and for which they were able to collect data, on average just over 1% of the couples split each year.

WSJ: Gay Divorce Rate Proves Hard to Measure

To determine the best city for couples, we collected data for 40 of the largest metropolitan statistical areas for five different categories: marriages per 1, 000 people, divorces per 1, 000 people, starter-home affordability, income disparity and availability of couple's or family counseling.

FORBES: Special Report

Some fertility experts - Dr Lieberman included - have queried the way in which the HFEA's patient data is presented, fearing that couples may be attracted to a particular private clinic's success rate without taking into account other factors - such as the age of its patients or the techniques used.

BBC: IVF under the microscope

U.S. Census Bureau data suggest that 16, 400 children being raised by same-sex couples are stepchildren and 22, 500 are adopted.

CNN: The real 'modern family' in America

Same-sex couples are a small-enough proportion of all couples that they tend to be too small a part of national surveys to produce reliable data, necessitating targeted surveys such as Prof.

WSJ: Gay Divorce Rate Proves Hard to Measure