Study finds people in relationships tend to be happier than singles

A large-scale cross-cultural study published in Evolutionary Psychological Science found that people in relationships, particularly satisfying ones, report higher emotional wellbeing and life satisfaction than singles.

Menelaos Apostolou and colleagues investigated whether single individuals are emotionally better off than those in intimate relationships. Prior research suggests that the presence and quality of intimate relationships substantially influence emotional health, with negative emotions often tied to involuntary singlehood. The current study builds on this, hypothesizing that not all single experiences are equal and that the impact of singlehood on emotional health can vary depending on whether one is voluntarily single, recently separated, or unable to find a partner.

The researchers recruited a diverse sample of 6,338 participants from 12 countries, including China, Egypt, Greece, Japan, Oman, Peru, Poland, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and Ukraine. The survey was translated into each country’s primary language, employing a back-translation process for reliability.

Participants were diverse in relationship status, classified as either “in a relationship,” “married,” “involuntarily single” (those who desired a relationship but had difficulty attracting a mate), “voluntarily single” (those who preferred to be single), or “single between relationships” (recently separated and not yet partnered).

Participants completed a multi-part survey measuring life satisfaction, emotional wellbeing, optimism, and meaning in life. The first part of the survey assessed life satisfaction using the five-item Satisfaction with Life Scale, where participants rated items on a seven-point Likert scale.

Emotional wellbeing was evaluated through the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, focusing on emotions experienced in the past few weeks, which included both positive emotions like joviality and self-assurance and negative emotions such as guilt and sadness.

Happiness was gauged by asking participants about their general happiness and the proportion of time they felt in happy, neutral, or unhappy states. Optimism was assessed with a ten-item scale and meaning in life using a ten-item purpose questionnaire.

Participants in relationships completed a separate seven-item scale assessing relationship satisfaction, providing an overview of relationship quality. By categorizing participants’ relationship satisfaction scores, the researchers further divided relationships into “good,” “moderate,” and “bad” quality.

The results revealed a strong link between relationship status and emotional wellbeing, with those in relationships generally reporting higher life satisfaction and positive emotions than singles. Within the spectrum of singlehood, involuntarily single participants experienced the most negative emotions, such as sadness and loneliness, and the lowest levels of positive emotions.

Those who were single by choice or in between relationships reported moderately higher emotional wellbeing than involuntarily single participants but still scored lower than those in relationships.

Married individuals and those in relationships consistently recorded the highest scores for positive emotions and life satisfaction. A closer look at happiness and time spent in happy emotional states also indicated that mated individuals, especially those who were married, experienced higher happiness levels and a greater proportion of time feeling happy compared to singles.

Participants in high-quality relationships (“good” relationship category) reported greater emotional wellbeing and satisfaction than those in moderate or bad relationships. Positive emotions like joviality and self-assurance were most pronounced in individuals with high relationship satisfaction, while negative emotions such as guilt and sadness were more common among those in poor-quality relationships or those who were single.

Furthermore, singles—particularly those who were involuntarily single—reported lower levels of life satisfaction, optimism, and meaning in life compared to those in intimate relationships, with these differences remaining consistent across the various countries in the sample.

The findings suggest that intimate relationships, particularly high-quality ones, contribute significantly to an individual’s emotional wellbeing and life satisfaction across cultural contexts.

One limitation is the cross-sectional nature of the study, which prevents drawing causal conclusions about the impact of relationship status on emotional wellbeing over time.

The research, “Emotional Wellbeing and Life Satisfaction of Singles and Mated People Across 12 Nations,” was authored by Menelaos Apostolou, Mark Sullman, Agata Błachnio, Ondřej Burýšek, Ekaterina Bushina, Fran Calvo, William Costello, Mai Helmy, Tetiana Hill, Maria Galatiani Karageorgiou, Yanina Lisun, Denisse Manrique-Millones, Oscar Manrique-Pino, Yohsuke Ohtsubo, Aneta Przepiórka, Orestis Cleanthous Saar, Burcu Tekeş, Andrew G. Thomas, Yan Wang, and Sílvia Font-Mayolas.