Know the Facts:
Get Married, Live
Longer.
Married people live longer. Single men have
mortality rates that are 250% higher than married men. Single women have
mortality rates that are 50% higher than married women (Ross et all, 1990).
Having a spouse can decrease your risk for dying from cancer as much as
knocking ten years off your life. Single people spend longer in the hospital,
and have a greater risk of dying after surgery (Goodwin et al, 1987).
Married women are 30% more likely to rate their health as
excellent or very good compared to single women, and 40% less likely to rate
their health as only fair or poor compared to single women. Based on life
expectancies, nine of ten married men and women alive at age 48 are alive at
65, while only six of ten single men and eight of ten single women make it to
65. Married men may have better immune systems as well, either from support or
from nagging to monitor blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, etc… and may be at
less risk to catch colds (Cohen et al, 1997)
Get Married, For
Better Mental Stability.
Married men are half as likely to commit suicide as single
men, and one third as likely as divorced men. Widowed men under 45 are nine
times more likely to commit suicide as married men (Smith, Mercy, and Conn,
1988). Married people report lower levels of depression and distress, and 40%
say they are very happy with their lives, compared to about 25% in single
people. Married people were half as likely to say they were unhappy with their
lives.
Single men drink twice as much as married men, and one out
of four say their drinking causes problems. Only one of seven married men says
the same. One out of six single men abstains from alcohol, but one in four
married men do (Miller-Tutzauer et al, 1991).
Get Married, Watch
Your Finances Improve.
Married men are more successful in work as well, getting
promoted more often and receiving higher performance appraisals. They also miss
work or arrive late less often (Kostiuk and Follman, 1989, and Shaw, 1987). As
for women, white married women (without children) earn 4% more and black
married women earn 10% more than their single peers (Waite, 1995). While some
point out that house work for married women (37 hours per week) is greater than
that of single women (25 hours), half of that is due to having children (South
and Spitze, 1994).
Get Married, Have a
Better Sex Life.
According to the Durex Survey of 26,000 people around the
world, married people reported having sex twice as often as those that were
single!
