Happy Eaters
- Couples who eat together are more likely to enjoy their meal and be happy in their relationship compared to couples who eat apart.
- These are the findings from our analysis of data from the UK Time Use Survey 2014-15 especially for Marriage Week UK, 13-19 May.
- Participants overall were 19 per cent more likely to report that they enjoyed their meal if eating together with their spouse or partner. In contrast, they were also 8 per cent more likely to enjoy their meal if they did not use a smartphone while eating. Similar proportions said they enjoyed their meal, whether or not they ate with their child.
- More couples enjoy their meal a lot if they eat together: 18 per cent more married couples, 23 per cent more cohabiting couples, and 21 per cent more civil partners.
- Married couples are 24 per cent more likely than cohabiting couples to eat together regularly, more than 80 per cent of the time.
73 per cent of cohabiting couples enjoyed their meal a lot (scoring 6 or 7 out of 7) if they ate as a couple, compared to 60 per cent of couples who ate separately.
For married couples, the figures were 74 per cent compared to 63 per cent.
For civil partners, the figures were 87 per cent compared to 71 per cent.
35 per cent of married couples ate together often (more than 80% of the time) compared to 28 per cent of cohabiting couples.
22 per cent of married couples ate together rarely (less than 40% of the time) compared to 27 per cent of cohabiting couples.
67 per cent of married couples who ate together were very happy with their relationship compared to 58 per cent of those who ate apart.
