Married men and married women live, on average, two years longer than their unmarried counterparts. One reason for this longevity benefit is the influence of marital partners on healthy behaviors. Study after study shows that married people eat better and are less likely to smoke and drink excessively.
There's good news for men in their quest for longevity. Though women still live longer in most countries of the world, the difference in life expectancy, known as the mortality gap, is closing. In North America, a man can expect to live to between 75 and 78 years of age, depending on where he lives.
Here's what research shows. Marriage was one of the first non-biological factors identified as improving life expectancy. The explanation given was that married people tend to take fewer risks with their health and have better mental and emotional health.
The Terman Life-Cycle Study–an ongoing project that started following more than 1,500 people in 1921–found that whereas steadily married men were likely to live substantially longer than divorced or remarried men, divorced women lived almost as long as their married peers.
These cultural stereotypes persist despite evidence that marriage serves men much more than women in almost every way. Married men are better off than single men; they are healthier, wealthier, and happier.
It turns out married men are actually happier after marriage than they would be if they stayed single, according to researchers at Michigan State University. The study looked at 1,366 people who weren't married before participating in the survey, got married at some point during, and stayed married.
Hu found that reported happiness was higher overall among married people than unmarried people. By gender, 56.2 percent of married men said they were “very happy,” compared with only 39.4 percent of unmarried men who said so.
Marriage and longevity
Married men and married women live, on average, two years longer than their unmarried counterparts. One reason for this longevity benefit is the influence of marital partners on healthy behaviors.
A new study from the American College of Cardiology,1 which was published on February 23, 2023, found that married men are more likely to live a longer life.
Wives are the ones who most often file for divorce at 66 percent on average. That figure has soared to nearly 75 percent in some years.
Men staying single can often be attributed to their lack of willingness to make adjustments to accommodate a person in their life. Some men are not marrying because they might believe that men shouldn't get married as they will have to give up material and non-material things in their lives.
Married Men Make More Money
They tend to earn more, save more, and have access to a second income, generating much more accumulated wealth than single men, according to the study.
Indeed, married people are happier than unmarried people: across nearly five decades of surveys, data from the GSS shows that 36% of people who have ever been married (including divorced, separated, and widowed people) say they are “very happy” while just 11% are “not too happy,” compared to 22% and 15% for people who ...
Other more recent research suggests that the overall percentage could be far higher than 11%. A 2014 Pew Report estimated that by the time today's young adults reach the age of about 50, about 25% will have been single all their lives.
Association of Occupational Domain With Life Expectancy
The teaching domain is characterized by the longest life expectancy, i.e., 18.3 years for men and 23.1 years for women. For men, the difference amounts to 3.6 years; for women, this is 3.1 years.
Women's life expectancy was 79 years in the U.S. in 2021, while men's was about 73, according to CDC data. The U.S. has a higher rate of avoidable deaths, which is measured as death before the age of 75, among men than any comparable country.
Contempt is the worst of the four horsemen. It is the most destructive negative behavior in relationships. In Dr. John Gottman's four decades of research, he has found it to be the number one predictor of divorce.
Whether accepted or not, there is one fact that cannot be disputed. And that is that women initiate divorce more often than men on average. Numerous studies have shown this. In fact, nearly 70 percent of divorces are initiated by women.
The longest marriage recorded (although not officially recognized) is a granite wedding anniversary (90 years) between Karam and Kartari Chand, who both lived in the United Kingdom, but were married in India.
Childless men and women have an overall higher mortality than adults with children, meaning that they die earlier, recent studies show.
By 2019, 39% of men were unpartnered, compared with 36% of women. In terms of their demographic characteristics, prime-working-age single adults are somewhat younger than their counterparts who are married or living with a partner.
According to recent scientific studies, men who never get married may gain strength from solitude. They have more extensive social networks and a deeper connection to work. They're also differently vulnerable to some of life's travails.
Researchers from Florida State University found that maximizing men -- those who seek to make the "best" choice -- who had attractive wives were more satisfied at the start of their marriages than maximizing men who had less attractive wives, and maximizing women who had high status husbands experienced less steep ...
Men Are More Likely to Remarry
The rate for women was significantly lower, at only 19.4 per 1,000 women eligible for remarriage. This data indicates that men are consistently more likely to attempt a second marriage than women.
About 29% of all marriages in the United States involve at least one person who has been married at least one time before. Men generally remarry faster than women do after a divorce. Caucasians are more likely to remarry faster than any other racial demographic in both genders.