Which Is Worse: A Bad Relationship or Being Single?

More and more people are single these days. A common question is whether single people are more or less satisfied with their lives than people in a relationship. Intuitively, it could be assumed that single people may be happier than people who are unhappy with their relationship, but unhappier than people in very happy relationships.

A new study, just published in the scientific journal Evolutionary Psychological Science, focused on investigating the emotional well-being and life satisfaction of singles and people in relationships across many different countries (Apostolou and co-workers, 2024). Led by scientist Menelaos Apostolou from the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, the research team analyzed data from 6,338 volunteers.

Importantly, the data were not only gathered in one country but in 12 different countries including China, Egypt, Greece, Japan, Oman, Peru, Poland, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and Ukraine. The average age of the volunteers was 32.7 years.

Overall, 29.4 percent of the volunteers were married and 23.5 percent were in a relationship but not married. Moreover, 19.3 percent were single by choice, 12.2 percent were single despite searching for a partner, 9.1 percent were between relationships, and 6.5 percent had an unclear relationship status. The volunteers filled out several psychological questionnaires regarding topics like satisfaction with life, happiness, positive and negative emotions, optimism, meaning in life, and relationship satisfaction.

What Did the Researchers Find Out?

The results of the study revealed that overall, people who were married or in a relationship had the highest life satisfaction and emotional well-being. People who were involuntarily single but would like to have a partner were the least happy. People who chose to be single or were between relationships had medium levels of life satisfaction and emotional well-being.

However, an interesting finding was observed when relationship quality was included in the statistical analysis. As was to be expected, people in good relationships showed higher emotional well-being and life satisfaction compared to people in bad relationships. When people in bad relationships were compared to singles, it was found that people in bad relationships spent more time being unhappy than single people. Moreover, single people had higher life satisfaction than those in bad relationships.

Are Bad Relationships Worse Than Being Unhappily Single?

Taken together, the results suggest that both those who are involuntarily single and those in bad relationships experience lower life satisfaction and emotional well-being than people who are married or in a good relationship. However, being in a bad relationship appears to be worse than being involuntarily single.