Single people are 80 percent more likely to be depressed

Unmarried people are up to 80 per cent more likely to have depressive symptoms than those who are wed, analysis suggests.

Researchers have discovered that saying ‘I do’ appears to have a protective effect against depression, which affects around 16 per cent of adults in the UK.

The risk of depression also seemed to be higher in men, and those who had higher levels of education.

And the findings may help to identify groups at higher risk of the mental illness, experts say.

Researchers from Macau Polytechnic University analysed data collected from questionnaires from more than 100,000 people in seven countries – the US, UK, Mexico, Ireland, South Korea, China and Indonesia.

Across a follow-up period of up to 18 years, they found that being unmarried was linked to a 79 per cent higher risk of depressive symptoms compared to those who are married.

Divorced or separated individuals had a 99 per cent higher risk of depressive symptoms, while widowed individuals had a 64 per cent higher risk.

Unmarried participants in Western countries – including the UK – had a higher risk of depression than their counterparts in Eastern countries, they discovered.

The scientists suggest that the lower rates of depressive symptoms among married couples could be due to better social support, being better-off financially and couples having a positive influence on each-other’s wellbeing.

Writing in the journal Nature Human Behaviour they said: ‘Depression represents a significant global public health challenge, and marital status has been recognised as a potential risk factor.

‘Our analysis revealed that unmarried individuals had a higher risk of depressive symptoms than their married counterparts across all countries.

‘This heightened vulnerability emerged especially among single, highly educated males in Western nations.’

They said that across certain countries, drinking alcohol and smoking worsened depressive symptoms across people who were single, widowed or divorced.

Despite the findings, experts have previously described the idea of wedded bliss as ‘largely a myth’ with ‘hardly any evidence’ that tying the knot leads to a better life.

Scientists last year reviewed dozens of studies to examine the differences in suicide, loneliness, physical health and happiness between people who are married and those who are not.

They discovered that people who stay single typically have ‘very similar outcomes’ to those who have said ‘I do’.

Psychologist Dr Bella DePaulo, who led the previous study, said: ‘It is widely believed that people who marry become happier and healthier than they were when they were single.

‘In fact, this belief is so pervasive, and so rarely challenged, that it is more than a belief – it is more like a mythology or ideology. And like many myths, this one is wrong.

‘Studies that follow the same people over the course of many years of their lives find hardly any evidence that people who marry become happier or healthier than they were before; there is even some evidence that people become a little less healthy after they marry.’

She warned that single people can be stereotyped as ‘miserable, lonely and alone, selfish and self-centred, and as wanting nothing more than to become coupled’.