I Think I'll take the $100,000
Study: Marriage Brings As Much Happiness As $100,000
HANOVER, N.H. (Reuters) - Marriage brings as much happiness as
an additional $100,000 in income, two researchers reported on
Monday in a study called ``Well-Being in Britain and the U.S.''
Dartmouth College economist David Blanchflower and his
University of Warwick in Great Britain colleague Andrew Oswald
studied 100,000 people during a 25-year period.
They found that the overall level of happiness among Americans
has declined in the last 25 years while the happiness level for
Britons has remain ``relatively flat,'' Blanchflower said in a
telephone interview.
``Women are happier than men, but that gap is closing. You see
women have equality now and they're less happy than they were,''
Blanchflower said, attributing the drop to increased pressures
and opportunities. ``You're more equal, but life's tougher.''
Money does buy happiness, but less than is generally thought,
Blanchflower noted, saying, ``You have to have a lot of money to
compensate you for a family breakdown.''
When the amount of happiness generated by a lasting marriages
was compared to the happiness produced by financial
circumstances, the authors' statistical calculations showed that
a lasting marriage brought as much happiness as an additional
$100,000 in annual income.
The chance of subsequent marriages making people happy,
however, were slimmer.
``Most people said they were less happy in their second
marriage than in their first. And being separated is worse than
being divorced,'' he said.
The researchers graphed happiness and found that it had a
U-shape with the lowest point falling at around age 40. After
that happiness was on the upswing.
It's no fun when the $$ runs out
