Happy relationships do not depend on marriage: study

We all have heard married people live happier over their lifetimes than single folks do. People tend to say they're more "satisfied" with life just after their weddings.

But a report in Tech Insider asks if it is actually the act of marriage that's causing those benefits.

And the answer is- probably not.

In fact, according to the report, there are evidences to the contrary: A 2012 study found that couples who lived together but were not married, had higher self-esteem and were happier overall than their married counterparts. A 2011 review of the impact of happiness on major life events, found that couples who got married generally felt less happy and less satisfied over time than couples who had not, reports Tech Insider.

However a recent research suggests that it isn't marriage that's the key to happiness, but the quality of the relationship itself.

A 2014 working paper from the National Bureau of Economics Research found that if the person you call your partner (or significant other, or whatever) is also the person you see as your best friend, you don't actually need to be married to reap the benefits of a long-term relationship. And it's this factor, rather than getting married (or not) that appears to matter the most for happiness according to the working paper.

To arrive at their conclusions, the researchers studied three separate data sets that included information about thousands of couples: The United Kingdom's Annual Population Survey, the British Household Panel Survey, and the Gallup World Poll. Then, they controlled for couples' age, gender, income, and health conditions (all of which could potentially affect their results).

A wedding couple pose at the Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Photo: Reuters

Here's a chart from the study comparing the "life satisfaction" of couples who were married (blue bars) with couples who lived together but were unmarried (red bars). Couples who said their partner was their best friend are on the left.

Also there are other researches to back the idea that marriage isn't the key to happiness

But "Too many social scientists simply are not going to give up on the claim that getting married makes you happier," DePaulo writes.

For another 2012 study (this one a survey of American couples), researchers found that couples who lived together but were not married had higher self-esteem and were happier overall than their married counterparts. Both types of relationships, however, were still linked with increases in overall well-being. Other studies suggest that marriage might even be more closely linked with negative outcomes than positive ones: A 2011 review of the impact on happiness of major life events found that couples who got married generally felt less happy and less satisfied with their lives over time.