Greater satisfaction through living together
When people move in together as a couple, they are much happier in the first year after doing so. This is the finding of an analysis of data from the “Leben in Deutschland” study. From the second year onwards, there is no further increase in their happiness—but the values are still higher than before they moved in together.
In the short and medium term, living together makes people happier. However, it has no effect on partners who were already in a relationship a year before moving in together. They had already achieved a higher level of satisfaction by entering into the relationship. The researchers assume that the central emotional turning point is the relationship itself and that living together merely further consolidates well-being.