A stock image of wedding rings.Photo:Getty
Getty
Let those wedding bells ring:Married peopleare among the happiest people in America, a new study claims.
After reviewing the GSS data while noting various factors — including age, race, gender, education, marital status, income and geography — Peltzman concluded that American people who are married are 30 points happier than those who are not married. While the other factors were important in determining a person’s overall happiness, Peltzman notes those factors didn’t matter as much as marital status. (Peltzman’s study has not yet been peer reviewed.)
“The only happy people for 50 years have been married people,” Peltzman toldThe Atlantic.
Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins, toldThe Atlanticthat this decline could be related to the dwindling benefits for married couples. “Life is still a bit easier if you’re married,” he said. “But many of the life events we link to marriage, such as cohabitating or having kids, are increasingly occurring outside of marriage.”
While Peltzman’s study concludes that married couples are the happiest,The Institute for Family Studiesreports that the GSS data also shows that actually fewer Americans believe that married people are the most content,The Atlanticnoted.
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After analyzing the GSS data they found that in 1988, over 50% of people believed married people are happier than unmarried people. That percentage declined throughout the years to just under 40% in 2020.
Other studies similar to Peltzman’s have explored when and why married people are, in fact, happiest all around the world, according toThe Atlantic.
In 2017,a studyconducted using data from the British Household Panel Survey found that married people in England are more satisfied with their lives years after their marriage,The Atlanticreported.
“I’ve been waiting for Americans to have long-term cohabiting relationships like the Europeans do for decades now, and it hasn’t happened yet,” Cherlin toldThe Atlantic. “Happy cohabiting couples don’t show up in the data because there just aren’t that many of us.”
source: people.com
