Study: Married People Happier Than Singles, Smart Women Make Better Wives

In a paper called "I just want to get married- I don't care to who! Marriage, Life Satisfaction and Educational Differences in Australian Couples" doctoral candidate Shane Worner of Australian National University reports that married people are happier than unmarried people, and men who marry educated women are happier than men who marry uneducated women. The paper was presented earlier this week at the annual conference of the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia.

Worner surveyed 5,000 Australians, asking them to rank their level of happiness on a scale from one to ten, then inquired as to their marital status. In general, Worner found that married men are 135% more likely to report a high happiness score than single men. In contrast, married women are only 52% happier than their unmarried counterparts. The study also reports that single men have to make $136,000 per year more in income to attain the happiness that simply being married brings. For single women, this figure is $122,000. Regardless of the discrepancy between genders, the fact remained that married people do report higher levels of happiness.

Worner also observed a U-shaped curve of satisfaction levels exists around the time of marriage for both genders. Individuals are less happy the year or two before marriage, very happy around the time of the marriage, and then realize another decline in happiness after marriage.

The survey also included education level and revealed rather surprising results. A man's happiness increases by 8% for each year of education his wife has. So, a woman that has a bachelor's degree has the potential of making her husband 32% happier than she would otherwise. Interestingly, this correlation does not hold true for women.

Happiness also changes with differences in years of education between the spouses. Women tend to be a bit happier if their husbands are more educated than they are, but education differences do not matter as much to men.

Why these differences in happiness levels exists at this point is speculation. Worner states, "It may have something to do with personal preferences for certain characteristics in a partner. Women may prefer males that are higher educated than themselves to ensure financial security. Males may prefer the consumption benefits of a highly educated spouse. Or maybe it is just a case of negative assortative mating, that is, opposites really do attract."

When interviewing my husband this morning over coffee, I asked him whether he believes this story to be true. While I had to point out that being a know-it-all and being educated are two different things, he concurred that he is happy.

Source: http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/conf/hildaconf2007/HILDA%202007%20Papers/Session%205C/Worner,%20Shane_final%20paper.pdf