In case the divorce rate wasn’t enough to convince you that marriage isn’t a foolproof guarantor of long-term contentment, a new survey of wellbeing finds widows fare better than married couples. It’s singles that fare the worst, though—sorry, singles.
Or at least that’s the case in Australia, anyway. News.com.au reports that, in a survey of 2,100 conducted by the National Australia Bank, it was widows and widowers that were most upbeat about their wellbeing. The NAB’s economists elaborated:
“In particular, mental wellbeing, feeling part of the community and physical health are significantly stronger contributors to the wellbeing of widows when compared to married couples.”
“Feeling part of the community” seems pretty telling — maybe too many married couples let their social networks degrade once they’re together. We’ve all known those people. But women over 50 also reported the highest levels of happiness overall (women 18 to 29 being the most miserable), so maybe Australia is just full of chill Red Hat Society members.
The childless also fared better than those with children. Not surprising when you considering the number of Legos and Barbie shoes the average parent probably steps on every week.
Image via Shutterstock
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