Research - 27.08.2026 - 11:00
On average, people in a relationship are happier than singles. But does this difference apply equally everywhere? An international research team set out to investigate this question. The researchers examined whether the difference in life satisfaction between singles and people in a relationship is linked to place of residence.
The study involved researchers from the University of St.Gallen, the University of Bamberg, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the University of Cambridge, led by Dr Tita Gonzalez Avilés from the Chair of Developmental Psychology, Education and Learning at the University of Bamberg. The findings have been published in the high-impact journal Psychological Science.
The researchers analysed data from more than 382,000 people across 379 regions in the UK. The data comes from the ‘Big Personality Test’, a large-scale online study conducted by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with the BBC. The researchers compared life satisfaction among single people and those in a relationship, and related these differences to the proportion of people in a relationship in the respective regions. For the purposes of the study, anyone who stated that they were in a romantic relationship at the time of the survey was considered to be in a relationship – regardless of their marital status.
The result: regardless of where they lived, people in a relationship reported higher life satisfaction than singles. At the same time, this difference was significantly greater in regions with a high proportion of people in relationships than in regions with fewer couples. The key factor here was the life satisfaction of people in a relationship: it was higher in regions with many couples, whilst there were hardly any regional differences among singles.
The study thus provides a new perspective on the link between relationships and well-being. Previous research has primarily shown that singles and people in a relationship differ in their life satisfaction. Individual factors have been the main focus when considering possible explanations. The new study now shows that the social environment also plays a role.
The researchers suspect that regional relationship norms are significant in this regard. Where relationships are particularly widespread, they may be perceived more strongly as the social norm. People in relationships may consequently experience greater social validation.
“People do not live in isolation from their environment. Regional norms and social expectations can influence how people perceive and evaluate their own life situation,” explains study leader and lead author Tita Gonzalez Avilés from the Chair of Developmental Psychology, Education and Learning at the University of Bamberg.
To rule out alternative explanations, the research team took numerous factors into account, such as age, income, education, health and personality traits. In addition, the researchers verified their results using various statistical methods and were also able to replicate them on a smaller geographical scale across 218 London neighbourhoods.
The study opens up new perspectives for research into relationships and well-being. According to the researchers, future work should examine in greater detail which social experiences, societal norms and institutional frameworks underlie these regional differences. What surprised the researchers was the significant influence of the social environment as they expected that the benefits of a partnership to be universal, since close relationships are among the most basic human needs. “To understand people better, we also need to consider the social contexts in which they live,” summarises Prof. Dr Tobias Ebert of the University of St.Gallen.
