Recent research from America has found that married couples have a much higher level of personal wellbeing than people who are divorced or separated.

The study, by Gallup, scored individual's wellbeing based on six individual categories - life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities.

The study found that married Americans had the highest wellbeing score (68.8) and people who were separated had the lowest score (55.9). Divorced people scored slightly higher than those who were separated, at 59.7. The scores for Americans who were single, widowed or cohabiting fell in between the married and separated scores.

Based on these figures, the study concluded that personal wellbeing can be directly affected by a person's marital status.