40 percent of Korean couples spend less than 30 minutes a day in conversation with each other, as they push their relationship to the back burner to make time for the daily grind of work, household chores and childcare, a study has revealed recently, according to Korean news agency Yonhap.

30 percent of couples said that they spend 10-30 minutes a day talking to their spouse; 12.1 percent said they just spend less than 10 minutes; 33.3 percent spend 30 minutes to one hour in conversation; only 24.6 percent of the couples have daily conversations totaling more than one hour.

The study also reveals the main reasons which result in reduced communication for couples: coming home late and doing overtime at the weekend (29.8 percent), watching TV and playing on computers or mobile phones separately (23.9 percent); too busy with childcare (20.9 percent).

According to the study, most of the topics of conversation between husband and wife are about the status and the future of their children (62.3 percent), followed by working life (24.3 percent), only 10.7 percent of the conversations are related to the couples' relationships.