Even though being in a committed relationship or marriage is still a societal norm in many cultures today, the number of single people has been increasing in many countries over the last few decades. The association between being single and psychological well-being is complicated and influenced by several factors. For example, someone who leaves a relationship that they were profoundly unhappy in may feel much better once they are single again. In contrast, someone who is single and unhappily in love with another person who does not have any romantic interest in them may be profoundly unhappy about being single.

Two factors that may play a role in whether being single makes someone unhappy are their age and how long they have been single. A young person that just left an unhappy relationship may be happy to enjoy their freedom, but someone who has been single for more than 3 years despite wanting a partner may be unhappy. One group of singles that has so far not been investigated very well in psychological research is never-partnered people who have been single all their lives.

A new study on life satisfaction, loneliness, and depression in people that never had a partner in their lives

A new study, just published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, focused on getting a better understanding of how being consistently single affects psychological well-being (Krämer and co-workers, 2026). In the article, entitled “Life satisfaction, loneliness, and depressivity in consistently single young adults in Germany and the United Kingdom”, the research team, led by scientist Michael D. Krämer from the University of Zürich in Switzerland, analyzed data from 17,390 volunteers from the United Kingdom and Germany. At the time of first data collection, all volunteers had never had a partner in their lives. At the time of first data collection, all volunteers were around 16 or 17 years old. The volunteers were then invited for further data collection until they were 29 years old. They filled out several questionnaires about their psychological well-being, loneliness, life satisfaction, feelings of depression, and information about themselves and their relationships.

Results of the study: 9 key insights

Here are the main insights about never-partnered people that were gained from the study:

Gender matters: Single women who never had a partner are more likely to find a partner by age 29 than single men.
Educated people stay single longer: People who had higher education were more likely to stay single longer, especially if they were women.
Living with parents made it less likely that a never-partnered person would find a partner.
Feeling lonely and depressed reduced the chances of ending singlehood.
Singles who are satisfied with their life are more likely to find a partner.
The longer someone stays single without ever having a partner, the stronger their life satisfaction drops.
The longer someone stays single without ever having a partner, the lonelier they feel. This effect was quite strong, and whether or not someone was never partnered explained 53 percent of the feelings of loneliness in the volunteers.
The drop-off in psychological well-being for never-partnered people was particularly strong in the late 20s.
Entering the first relationship in one’s life after being consistently single before that substantially increases satisfaction with life and decreases loneliness, but does not affect feelings of depression.

Take-Away

Taken together, the findings of the study showed that never-partnered people have, on average, lower psychological well-being than people in relationships, particularly if they stay single into their later 20s. They show different psychological patterns from people who were in relationships and became single by choice, and more psychological research on this group needs to be conducted.