Health and well-being in cohabitation versus marriage: Are cohabitants’ marriage intentions important?

We investigated the similarities and differences in health and well-being for individuals in cohabiting relationships compared to marriage, enriching the extant literature by differentiating cohabitants with the intention to marry from those with no intention to marry. We used 18 waves of panel data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey (n = 2820) and fixed-effects models to examine within-individual differences in general health, mental health, and life satisfaction across different relationship states and transitions among men and women. Differentiating outcomes when respondents are cohabitants with and without intention to marry was important, and our results suggested notable health differences when respondents were cohabiting but likely to marry, cohabiting but not likely to marry, and married. We did not find consistently that being married was associated with the best overall health and well-being. The findings contribute to a growing body of research suggesting that the health and well-being benefits of marriage are also evident when people are cohabiting. • Married people did not necessarily have better health and wellbeing than cohabitors. • Cohabitors likely to marry their partner had better health and wellbeing than those not likely to marry. • Single people in general had poorer healthand wellbeing than people in cohabiting or marital relationships. • Men who married had better general health than women who married. • Women who were cohabiting likely to marry their partner had better mental health than when they married.