Marriage, Money and Happiness

1
Marriage, Money and Happiness

• By Ted Goertzel
• Rutgers University, Camden NJ
• Spring, 2004

2
My Research Questions

• Are married people happier than single people?
• Does this relationship hold up if I control for
  age and income?

3
(No Transcript)
4
Data Source

• The data are from the 1998 General Social Survey
  of the United States Population
• N 2832

5
Dependent Variable

• HAPPY? Taken all together, how would you say
  things are these days? Would you say that you
  are very happy, pretty happy or not too happy?

6
Independent Variables

• MARITAL Are you currently married, divorced,
  separated or have you never been married?
• INCOME In which of these groups did your total
  family income from all sources fall last year,
  before taxes that is?
• less than 22,500
• 22,500 to 49,999
• 50,000 plus
• OVER50 Respondents Age is Under or Over 50

7
Percent Very Happy
Married Divorced or Widowed Never Married
43.5 23.2 18.3
8
Marital Status and Happiness

• For the sample as a whole, married people are
  significantly happier than those who are widowed
  or divorced or who never married.
• This relationship is statistically significant at
  the .000 level by chi-square test.
• However, divorced and widowed people are likely
  to be older than average, and this might effect
  their happiness.

9
Percent Very Happyfor respondents under 50
years old
Married Divorced or Widowed Never Married
41.7 19.5 19.9
10
Marital Status and Happiness for those under 50
years of age

• The results for those under 50 are very similar
  to those for the sample as a whole.
• Marriage seems to lead to happiness for younger
  people
• But perhaps this is due to income. Married
  people have a larger family income which may make
  them happier

11
Percent Very Happy
Income under 22,500 Income 22,500 to 49,999 Income over 50,000
22.2 29.7 42.0
12
Money and Happiness

• The data show that people with a family income
  above 50,000 are significantly happier
• The causal relationships are ambiguous
• Marriage may have led to both a higher income and
  happiness.
• But does marriage add happiness even for those
  with a higher income?

13
Marriage and Happinessfor people with a family
incomeabove 50,000 a year
Married Divorced or Widowed Never Married
47.6 30 22.2
14
Conclusion

• Even among those with a high income, married
  people are much happier
• This suggests that marriage brings both a higher
  family income and happiness
• The relationship between income and happiness may
  be spurious