Whether you're happily coupled up or endlessly swiping through dating apps, your postcode could have more influence on your love life than you think.
uncertain
you → couple → life
An interactive map reveals the parts of Britain packed with loved-up couples and those where singletons are most likely to be searching for romance.
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singletons → reveal → romance
Researchers found that relationship rates vary dramatically across the country, with major cities including London, Liverpool and Edinburgh home to some of Britain's biggest concentrations of single people.
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cities → find → people
Meanwhile more rural areas of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and East Anglia are dominated by couples.
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areas → dominate → couples
The study also found that single people tend to be happier when they live among other singletons, while the gap in life satisfaction between singles and those in relationships widens in areas where being coupled up is the norm.
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coupled → find → areas
‘People in romantic relationships often report higher life satisfaction than single individuals,’ the researchers wrote in the journal Psychological Science.
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researchers → report → journal
‘We have demonstrated that the size of this life-satisfaction gap is not uniform, but instead varies systematically across geographic contexts.
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size → demonstrate → contexts
‘Specifically, we found that the gap was larger in regions with higher relationship rates and smaller in regions with lower relationship rates.’
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gap → find → rates
For their study, the team surveyed 382,000 people living in 379 regions across Great Britain.
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team → survey → Britain
They discovered huge differences in relationship rates depending on location.
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They → discover → location
At one end of the scale was Bolsover in Derbyshire, where 80.2 per cent of respondents said they were in a relationship.
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they → say → relationship
Meanwhile, the London Borough of Brent had the lowest relationship rate, with just 54.8 per cent reporting they were coupled up.
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they → have → rate
The map produced by the researchers shows relationship rates are generally higher across eastern parts of Britain and lower in many western regions.
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rates → produce → regions
Large cities also stood out.
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cities → stand → ?
London, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Aberdeen all recorded lower relationship rates than surrounding areas.
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London → record → areas
That could spell good news for singletons living in major urban centres.
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That → spell → centres
Closer analysis also revealed major discrepancies between relationship rates across parts of London
Closer analysis also revealed major discrepancies between relationship rates across parts of London.
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analysis → reveal → London
Areas such as Bromley, Havering and Richmond had the highest rates, while there was a greater proportion of single people in Camden, Brent and Ealing.
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Areas → have → Camden
According to the researchers, people often feel happier when their circumstances match those of the people around them.
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circumstances → accord → them
The researchers explained that in highly coupled-up communities, being single may feel less socially accepted and more out of step with local norms.
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being → explain → norms
Singles may also find themselves excluded from couple-focused social circles or facing more pressure from family and friends to find a partner.
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themselves → find → partner
The authors suggest that social expectations, community culture and even local institutions may contribute to the pattern.
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expectations → suggest → pattern
Overall, the researchers concluded that relationship experiences cannot be separated from geography, because where people live helps shape how they feel about their relationship status.
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they → conclude → status
Their findings remained even after taking account of factors such as age, health, income, employment and personality traits.
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findings → remain → age
‘Using large-scale data from Great Britain, we replicated previous findings showing that partnered individuals, on average, report higher life satisfaction than their single counterparts,’ they wrote.
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they → use → counterparts
‘Extending this research, we have demonstrated that the size of this life-satisfaction gap is not uniform but instead varies systematically across geographic contexts.
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size → extend → contexts
‘Specifically, we found that the gap was larger in regions with higher relationship rates and smaller in regions with lower relationship rates.
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gap → find → rates
‘Although modest in size, this effect was robust across numerous confounds and model specifications and replicated also at a finer geographic scale, across neighbourhoods within London.’
The research was led by Dr Tita Gonzalez Avilés of the University of Bamberg in Germany and Professor Tobias Ebert of the University of St Gallen in Switzerland.
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research → replicate → Switzerland
Data was collected by Professor Peter Rentfrow of the University of Cambridge.
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Data → collect → Cambridge
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