Marriage and Happiness

 Pewsterspouse and I recently had our 50th High School reunions, and it was sad to see just how many of our respective former classmates had passed away and how many have been divorced and remarried or not. The ones who had divorced appeared happy, but I know that they were scarred. A recent Gallup poll confirms our belief that marriage is something that God intended for us to stay in.

“Within the U.S., it is clear that married adults rate their lives more highly than others and have done so for the past 15 years,” the survey, released last Friday, concluded. “From 2009 to 2023, married adults aged 25 to 50 were more likely to be thriving — by double-digit margins — than adults who have never married. The 16-percentage-point gap between married adults (61%) and those who have never married (45%) in 2023 is within the range of 10 to 24 points recorded since 2009.”

Marriage’s emotional bonus held true “for men and women across all major racial/ethnic groups” and “is not explained by other demographic characteristics — such as age, race/ethnicity or education.”

Gallup researchers found wedded couples less prone to communication breakdowns in their relationships. Married couples were half as likely (26%) to say they experienced two or more days in the last month where they or their partner felt so angry, they could not speak to each other than those living together (46%) or dating exclusive (41%). Interestingly, living together outside marriage made people 12% more likely to argue than dating exclusively while living separately.

The poll does not address the importance for God to be present in a marriage for a couple's true happiness.