2025 — Marital status and the risk of cardiovascular, cancer and all-cause mortality (meta-analysis)

What the study found

This updated systematic review and meta-analysis pooled published studies on how marital status relates to death rates. It concluded that unmarried people — whether single, divorced or widowed — faced a significantly higher risk of dying from all causes, from cardiovascular disease and from cancer than married people. Compared with married individuals, the all-cause mortality hazard ratios were 1.55 for single, 1.39 for divorced and 1.43 for widowed people. ^[1]

Unmarried status was significantly associated with an increased risk of all-cause, CVD, and cancer mortality

^[1]

Why it matters here

In manosphere debates, marriage is often framed as a raw deal for men. This meta-analysis speaks to the health side of that question: it reports an association between being unmarried and higher mortality, not that marriage itself causes longer life, since observational data cannot rule out that healthier people are more likely to marry and stay married. It also does not break the mortality figures down by sex, so it does not directly show whether men benefit more or less than women. It is cited on is marriage a bad deal for men? as evidence on how marital status correlates with health outcomes.