Why women smile on old age (and men just scowl)

It will come as no surprise to all those wives who have watched greying husbands mutter into their cornflakes.

Old men are grumpier than old women.

A study of nearly 10,000 over-55s revealed that gender is the most important factor in deciding their quality of life.

As they age, women are freed from the burdens of raising a family and are more likely to be happy.

Men, however, have a good chance of turning into a Victor Meldrew (pictured right) from One Foot in the Grave.

The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, by academics from three of the country's most eminent research institutions, asked respondents about their state of health, their income, their independence and how much pleasure they find in life.

'Women report higher quality of life than men for any marital status,' it said.

'Women in couples report the highest quality of life, while their husbands or partners report significantly lower quality of life,' the study concluded.

These grumpy husbands obviously don't realise that the grass is no greener on the other side - as fellows who have never married report the lowest quality of life overall.

In fact, they should be thanking their wives a little bit each day, as married men were found to have better health, measured as 'well-being', than anybody else.

On the subject of health, the study found that Alfred Lord Tennyson was wrong - and it may not be better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Divorced, separated or widowed people had the worst level of well-being, but those who had always been single were almost as well off as married men.

The report, produced by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, UCL and the National Centre for Social Research, took into account the views of 9,771 people born before 1952.

They were quizzed about their well-being - for example, about their rising or falling ability to concentrate, and about their independence, ability to run their own lives, and their ability to go out and enjoy themselves.

Unsurprisingly, researchers found that it helps when approaching retirement to have money.

'It is clear that income is positively and significantly associated with higher reported well-being and quality of life,' the report said.

'Also, being at risk of low income in retirement is strongly associated with lower reported well-being and quality of life.'

Retirement itself helps with both good health and happiness, the report said.

'Moving out of the labour force is associated with significant improvements in both reported well-being and reported quality of life,' it found.

The best health insurance was discovered to be marriage: those who were in a couple were only half as likely to die as those who were single over a five-year period, the report said.

And it found that over five years those questioned had seen their wealth increase by an average of 39 per cent.

'Large increases in house prices appear to explain virtually all of this increase in total wealth, while non-housing wealth has barely grown at all,' the report said.

Research leader Professor Sir Michael Marmot of the UCL Department of Epidemiology and Public Health said that despite the findings on happiness and sex, money remained the key to a better life.

The study shows that mortality, ill health, social isolation and loneliness all differed, in a graded way, with people's wealth: less wealth was associated with being sicker, less functional and more isolated,' he said.