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Single people actually live much healthier and happier lives.
By Unwritten — Written on Sep 12, 2022
A British physician, William Farr, wrote in 1858 that “marriage is a healthy estate”.
Through that, he meant that married people are healthier than their single colleagues.
A single person is more likely to crash on their journey through life.
Over the following decades, people still argue with sociologists that lonely people aren’t miserable.
Only in 2017 did it become possible to prove it!
Here are 5 weird sociological reasons fewer people want to get married:
1. Only half of the total population wants to get married
In 2017, The Census Bureau reported that a record number of adults in the U.S. were single that year.
More than 110 million residents were divorced or widowed or were always single.
This is more than 45 percent of all Americans aged 18 and over.
Moreover, the median age of the first marriage rose to 29.5 for men and 27.4 for women, and scientists say that this trend will continue.
Living alone is becoming more and more popular.
Historians say that, when analyzing data for the last half a century, this trend occurs in 78 more countries of the world.
2. Getting married no longer means adulthood
Half a century ago, if you were not married, then you weren't yet mature.
According to polls today, this is no longer a criterion for growing up and neither is having a child.
At present, completion of formal education and a serious career is more important, according to 95% of respondents.
3. Bachelors have more sex
For people over 18, researchers found that a person currently has sex about nine times more than the average person in the early 90s.
Not all values were the same, though.
They also differed for those who filed for a divorce.
4. Having a relationship does not mean high self-esteem
Teenagers aren’t concerned that they need to enter into a relationship, while adults postpone marriage for later.
Skeptics believe that this singlehood is due to problems with self-esteem, but researchers claim the opposite.
The beginning of a relationship improves self-esteem, only if the relationship is functioning well, is stable, and maintained for a certain period.
Moreover, the self-esteem of people who started a new romantic relationship, but could not hold on to it for a year, became lower than people who did not initially enter into a long-term relationship.
5. Marriage will not improve health
Another myth about marriage is that people who have entered into marriage become healthier.
There is a certain logic to this, as the husband and wife receive each other’s support and ensure that the partner resolves health issues on time.
But, three large, methodologically-complex studies published in 2017 refuted this idea.
Manhattan doctors also performed physical measurements of women’s waist sizes, body mass index, and blood pressure, and asked them about smoking, drinking, exercise, and eating habits.
The results showed that married women typically gained weight and drank more than those who were single.
All in all, marriage doesn’t ensure a healthier life (possibly the opposite, in fact).
For a long time, we were told that if we don’t get married, we will remain helpless and unhappy.
However, sociologists now say that if you are comfortable living alone, you will probably live much longer and healthier.
Research is on your side!
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Unwritten is a website covering marriage, relationships, and self-love. For more of their marriage content, visit their site.
This article was originally published at Unwritten. Reprinted with permission from the author.