10 ways being single affects your success

But not everybody thinks this way.

In the US, people are getting hitched less often than they once did, and young Americans are putting off marriage more than ever before.

In 1962, half of 21-year-olds and 90% of 30-year-olds had been married at least once. In 2014, only 8% of 21-year-olds and 55% of 30-year-olds had been married.

Single Americans are now the majority.

"For decades social scientists have been worrying that our social connections are fraying, that we've become a society of lonely narcissists," Klinenberg . "I'm not convinced."

And neither are a number of researchers. These studies begin to unpack the question of how being single affects your success, for worse or better:

Single people could be missing out on some happiness

A recent study on marital satisfaction released by the National Bureau of Economic Research and previously reported on by Business Insider suggests that the happiest people are those who are married to their best friends. And, controlling for pre-marital happiness, the study concluded that, overall, marriage leads to increased well-being.

The authors concluded that partners can provide each other with a unique kind of social support and help each other overcome some of life's biggest challenges.

Single people tend to be more social

Research suggests that, compared to married people, Americans who have always been single are more likely to support and stay in touch with their family and are more likely to help, encourage, and socialize with friends and neighbors.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Time Use Survey, single Americans spend on average 12 minutes a day staying in touch with other people by calling, emailing, or sending mail to them. Married people spend on average 7.8 minutes a day keeping in touch.

Single people tend to have more time to themselves

restorative solitude.

More alone time helps people discover who they are and what gives their life meaning and purpose, he explains.

"Living alone helps us pursue sacred modern values — individual freedom, personal control, and self-realization — whose significance endures from adolescence to our final days," Klinenberg writes.

Single people tend to spend more time on leisure

Whether conducted in solitude or with other people, singles tend to spend more time on overall leisure activities than married people.

According to the BLS, single people spend on average 5.56 hours a day on overall leisure activities, compared to married people, who spend an average 4.87 hours a day on leisure.

Broken down even further, single people spend on average about three minutes more a day participating in sports, exercise, and recreation than married people, about 16 minutes more a day watching TV, and about 15 minutes more a day playing games and on leisurely computer use.

Single people pay some monetary penalties

According to two Atlantic writers who crunched the numbers, single women can pay as much as $1 million more than their married counterparts over a lifetime.

The writers looked at the tax penalties and bonuses associated with single and married life, as well as living expenses like health spending and housing costs.

According to the US Department of the Treasury Office of Tax Analysis, on average more married couples than not see bonuses for filing joint tax returns, something single people can't do.

According to the BLS data referenced by the Atlantic writers, single women spent 7.9% of their annual income on their health, compared to couples who spent on average 6.9%.

And when it came to housing, single people tended to pay more: While married couples spent on average 23.9% of their annual income on housing, single men spent 30.3% and single women spent 39.8%.

By combining resources and splitting costs, married people have the edge on all kinds of day-to-day expenses in addition to rent or mortgage: One cable bill, one utilities bill, and shared groceries can all lead to big savings.

Single people have fewer legal liabilities

As LearnVest has reported, marrying someone makes you legally responsible for their financial missteps, whether that means assuming equal responsibility for their debt ("You owe how much in student-loan debt?!") or becoming a part of lawsuits filed against them.

Being single results in a pay penalty for men and a premium for women

A recent study conducted by W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, and Robert Lerman, an economics professor at American University, suggests that men see bigger salaries when they're married compared to their single counterparts, while women see the reverse.

According to the study results, single men between 28 and 30 years old earn around $15,900 less per year in individual income compared to their married counterparts, while single men between 44 and 46 years old make $18,800 less than married men of the same ages.

While the study authors did not consider these findings statistically significant, single women between 28 and 30 years old, on the other hand, earn $1,349 more per year

Single men work fewer hours than married men, while single women work more

The same study authors noted that income typically depends, in part, on the time men and women devote to the labor force.

They found that single men between 28 and 30 work 441 fewer hours outside the home per year than do their married peers, while men between 44 and 46 work 403 fewer hours if they are single.

Young single women work 196 hours more than do their married peers, though this number becomes negligible when their married peers have no children. And middle-aged single women work 131 more hours than their married counterparts, unless their peers are childless.

Single people tend to exercise more

Researchers from the University of Maryland found that men and women between the ages of 18 and 64 who had never been married tended to exercise more each week than those who were either married or divorced.

Another study found that married men were 25% more likely to be overweight or obese compared to single men.

But they also tend not to live as long

Still, more research suggests that single people may lose out on other health benefits, including one study that found married people tend to live longer than their single counterparts.

Contributing factors could include better mental health and lower odds of cardiovascular disease for married people.

"It might be that if someone is married, they have a spouse who encourages them to take better care of themselves," says Dr. Jeffrey Berger, a preventive cardiologist at NYU, according to the AP.

10 ways being single affects your success

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