Description: This paper demonstrates and quantifies death-rate differences by marital status, explores the reasons why mortality rates for the unmarried exceed those for the married, and encourages actuaries and others to contribute their thoughts on these perplexing matters. From the Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1994, Vol. 46.

Description: This abstract introduces the paper that demonstrates that marital status has as much influence on rates of human mortality as the better known factors of gender and smoking habits. The validity of various explanations is examined.