Married Turks happier than single ones

According to a recent study released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) on Tuesday, 63.9 percent of married people describe their general emotional state as happy, whereas this figure drops to 52.9 percent among unmarried people. TurkStat figures shows that in 2011, 62.1 percent of the general population considered themselves happy and this figure dropped to 61 percent in 2012. However, despite the decrease in the number of people considering themselves happy, the number of people who are hopeful about future increased from 75.2 percent to 76.6 percent in 2012. Although “ignorance is bliss” is a popular belief, TurkStat's figures actually indicate that the higher people's education level, the happier they are. Only 60 percent of respondents who did not continue their education after finishing elementary school described themselves as being happy, while this claim was made by 66.4 percent of graduates of higher educational institutions.

Responding to the question of whether they were in debt, 36.7 percent answered yes, while 24.7 percent reported having lower savings than in past years. Furthermore, the percentage of people who reported bankruptcy has increased to 1 percent, whereas this figure was 0.6 percent in 2011.