Married Couples – Healthier, Wealthier and Happier  
An article by Sam George

In a groundbreaking study, researchers came out with surprising and rather controversial findings. If you dream of being healthy, wealthy and happy, your best bet is to get married and stay that way!

I recently read the book The Case for Marriage by Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher.  Linda is a sociologist in University of Chicago and Maggie is a columnist. The findings are contentious amidst growing trends of singleness, rampant divorce and alternative marriages.

Why did I read this book? The emerging generations of Indian Americans have generally followed the socio-cultural trajectories of mainstream America. Researches like this will give us insight into what is in the future for our community, where we are already seeing a dramatic rise in divorce, singlehood (some as a result of divorce, many choosing to or forced to remain single), and homosexuality.

The study showed that married couples enjoy advantages over divorced, cohabitating and single people in virtually every area, including health, finances, happiness and sex.  It even asserts that those in bad marriages who stick it out find their marriage gets better!

Health: Married women enjoy longer lives than those who are divorced. 92% of married women can expect to reach the age of 65, compared to 82% of divorced females.  The findings are even more dramatic for men - 88% of married men and only 65% of divorced men reach that age. Divorced men and women engage in high risk activities like smoking drinking, unhealthy sexual activities, poor diet and exercise habits and reckless driving, contributing to the early death.

Wealth: A married couple in their 50's had net assets of $132,000. But a divorced person's assets are just $33,600. Surprisingly, a never-married person aged 55 has a net worth of only $35,000; the separated, a pitiful $7,600. Why? A married man earns 30 percent more than a single man with the same education. Happier the marriage, couple has better job performance and career prospects.

Sex: “Married sex really is better sex," reports the study. Both men and women enjoy it more, both physically and emotionally than do their unmarried counterparts. Married women found their experience to be twice as emotionally satisfying than divorced or never married women. Why? The secret ingredient of commitment increases sexual pleasure for both sexes.

Happy: Married people are twice as likely as those who are single for whatever reason to say they are "very happy." Some 40% of married couples say they are very happy, compared to 15% of the separated and 18% of the divorced. What's surprising is that only 22% of the never-married and cohabitants are very happy, the same as widows.

So if you are single, pursue marriage. If married, continue to make it better, for it yields rich dividends in the long run. If your marriage is going through a rough weather, get help. Jumping out of the ship is rarely a good choice.