A new study has found that married people are happier than those who never tied the knot.
According to a Gallup poll, adults who are married are 17% more likely to experience personal happiness compared to their unmarried peers. This statistic has risen 12 percent since 2009, demonstrating a growing gap in well-being between married and unmarried individuals.
Interestingly, this gap is not just a matter of demographic differences. Even after adjusting for factors like race, ethnicity and education, married adults still enjoy nearly a 20-percentage-point advantage in well-being over those who have never married.
But what makes married people happier? The data suggests that individuals who are naturally happier or possess traits conducive to happiness — such as agreeableness, emotional stability and conscientiousness — might be more inclined to seek marriage and are therefore more likely to be proposed to. In other words, happy people might be more prone to getting married, but marriage also amplifies their happiness.
Moreover, the Gallup data from 2020 to 2023 highlighted an intriguing point: marital status is a stronger predictor of well-being than education, race, age and gender. Even a married adult without a high school diploma reports a higher average life evaluation than an unmarried adult with a graduate degree, after adjusting for other factors.
Apparently, Beyoncé was right all along. If you like it, you should put a ring on it.
