Unmarried, childless women are the happiest people, scientist says

The ‘God When?’ campaign has recently sprung up and seems to be gaining ground on social media among single people, especially single women; suggesting that they are either unhappy or tired of being without a partner, or maybe both.

All the 'God when?' you find online might be misleading though, as it turns out that single women might actually be the happiest people you'll find around!

Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioural science says when married women are asked if they are happy and contented and they say yes, chances are that their partners are in the room and saying no would be awkward.

Single women? Very very happy people according to an expert on behaviour [Credit - Shutterstock] ece-auto-gen

In reality, no one is as happy as single women, professor Dolan adds.

In his exact words as reported by The Guardian, “the healthiest and happiest population subgroup are women who never married or had children.”

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Dolan’s comments are not from the top of his head. He is the author of a recently-released book; ‘Happy Ever After: Escaping the Myths of the Perfect Life’; which categorises people into their relationship status and tries to compare their happiness levels using data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS).

Of singles, married, separates, divorced and widowed folks, single people, particularly single women came out top of the happiness chain.

Married women are said to be not as happy as single ones. [Credit: Getty] Man angrily speaking with woman [Credit: Getty] Getty

It is actually not difficult to see why there might be merit to this finding. When women marry, they traditionally begin to bear more burdens on the home-front that they had to deal with when they were single. With kids and other chores to deal with, it is not difficult to see where the stress could come from. Sure, modern couples are redefining gender roles in marriage but it still does not completely take away the possibilities.

And then there’s also more stuff that can stress woman after marriage - the potential marriage issues, possible infidelity, conception, pregnancy, bearing and raising kids, dealing with their husband’s family among other things.

Interestingly, the opposite was true for men — meaning they seemed to get more of a benefit from marriage than women because, as Dolan explained, they “calmed down” after tying the knot.