10 Reasons Married People Live Longer

Studies have shown that married couples — married men in particular — tend to live longer than their unmarried counterparts. It seems that being married (and yes, the studies have shown that this is even more true for married couples rather than cohabiting couples) improves both your physical and mental health, making you fitter, happier, and healthier than single people. There are many theories — ranging from reliable emotional support to lower alcohol consumption — that explain why being married seems to increase your life expectancy.

Single people are likely to eat out more, socializing and dating over brunch, lunch, or dinner, thereby spending less time cooking at home. Because married couples have each other to hang out with when they are home, they are more likely to make homemade meals than to eat out, which is typically a healthier option.

Click here to see the tastiest meals to cook for a date night in.

Married couples tend to drink less alcohol than unmarried couples, which obviously leads to improved physical health. We imagine this is a result of married couples often being happier to spend a night in together, rather than going out drinking every weekend.

Click here to see what alcohol does to your body.

Being in a happy marriage means your spouse is almost always there to provide you with emotional support, encouraging words, a motivational conversation, and even just a shoulder to cry on, making you feel stronger and more confident than single people who may not have such a reliable support system in place.

Being single doesn't mean you're lonely, but it is likely that you will spend more time on your own than if you were married. This companionship that comes with a happy marriage is essentially an endless emotional support system, which should improve your mental health, leading to a longer life, as mental health can be directly connected to physical health.

It has been suggested that married couples are generally happier than single or unmarried people. The theory is that married couples are less prone to depression as they are more content and satisfied with their current life. This is especially conspicuous during the typical period of a midlife crisis.

Click here to find out if family dinners are the key to happiness.

Married couples tend to have lower stress levels than single or unmarried people. This is in part due to the stable relationship that is the foundation of their lives, but is also as a result of more material consequences of marriage such as a joint income and the helpful results of economies of scale.

Spouses will naturally keep an eye on each other's physical health, as they spend so much time with each other and know one another so well. This means that not only will they probably encourage a healthier lifestyle, but they may also notice when something changes before that person may have noticed themselves.

Single people are unlikely to sit down to dinner at a table when they're eating alone, but married couples are much more likely to share their daily meals with each other, without the television on, around a dinner table. Eating your meals away from screens and distractions is often discussed as a key health benefit, but it's hard to make this happen if you're eating alone.

Data shows that that married couples smoke less than single people, leading to a longer life expectancy. There are many reasons why this could be: A couple could quit smoking simultaneously, and encourage each other to not give in, or maybe only one person smoked and the other doesn't so one quits for their partner's tastes and benefits.

We all know that it's easier to pick up healthier lifestyle habits with a friend or spouse than on your own. Deciding to eat more healthily, to eat smaller portions, to exercise more, or to drink less are all achieved more easily when done with a permanent partner in crime, your spouse.