Happiness as a couple depends on where you live: couples happier where couples abound

People in relationships are on average more satisfied with their lives than singles – but how large that edge is apparently also depends on where they live. That is the finding of a study led by psychologist Tita Gonzalez Avilés of the University of Bamberg, with the University of Jena, the University of Cambridge and the University of St. Gallen also involved. It was published in the journal Psychological Science; the University of Bamberg presented it at the end of August, and the specialist outlet PsyPost reported on it in detail on 12 October. The researchers analysed data from 382,078 adults in 379 districts of Great Britain who took the online Big Personality Test run by the BBC and the University of Cambridge between 2009 and 2011.

Nationally, life satisfaction among people in relationships was about half a standard deviation higher than among singles. In districts with many couples, however, the gap was markedly larger than in districts with few; the share of people in relationships ranged from about 55 percent in a London borough to 80 percent in Bolsover. The difference arose mainly because couples there were more satisfied – singles' satisfaction stayed largely the same. A similar pattern appeared across 218 London postal districts. Age, income, education, health and personality were among the factors taken into account. "People do not live in isolation from their environment," Gonzalez Avilés said. The researchers suspect that regional relationship norms give partnerships stronger social validation.

Limitations: the data show associations, not causes – it is possible, for example, that happy couples are more likely to move to areas with many couples. Participants were self-selected online volunteers, about 64 percent were women, and the survey dates back more than 15 years. Only Great Britain was studied; the authors themselves describe their explanations for some unplanned additional findings as speculative. Neither the press release nor the PsyPost report gives information on funding.