Professor Mike Murphy: "...all the evidence shows that there is something in marriage itself that is a benefit"
Marriage beats all other living arrangements in terms of its benefits to adults and children, an official Government study has found.
Married adults were shown to be healthier and to live longer than cohabiting or single people, whether widowed or divorced, according to the Focus on Families survey by the Office of National Statistics.
Although number of people living together has increased significantly in the last ten years, there are still over five times more married couples than cohabiting couples in the UK.
Regardless of economic background, children living with their married parents were the healthiest and stayed longer in the education system. Extra-marital childbearing and divorce caused adverse health problems for children. Children whose parents cohabit were least likely to be in full-time education at 17.
The study contradicted expectations that the increasing social acceptance of cohabiting and single-parent families would show an improvement in the health of the adults and children involved.
Mike Murphy, Professor of Demography at the London School of Economics, acknowledged that "...all the evidence shows that there is something in marriage itself that is a benefit."
