Studies Show Pets Bring as Much Joy as Marriage or Best Friends

Modern times can be rather confusing. In an era of hyper-connectivity and emotional distance, it is natural to seek fulfilment and satisfaction.  For some, that takes the form of their career, while others find joy with their friends and family.  

In a modern-day family, pets are not just pets; they are beloved members of the family. If your pet gives you that sense of joy and happiness, you are not alone. 
According to a study led by Dr. Adelina Gschwandtner from the University of Kent and Dr. Michael Gmeiner from the London School of Economics (LSE), owning a pet can increase one’s life satisfaction as much as marriage or meeting your best friends frequently. 

Their findings also show that having a furry friend as a companion can be worth up to £70,000 per year when measured in life satisfaction, which puts pets in the same emotional bracket as a partner or loved one. 

Measuring the Emotional Value of Pet Ownership 

How can a value be ascribed to emotions, you may ask? To arrive at the figure above, the researchers used an economic tool known as the “life satisfaction approach”. This approach examines various life events and how they contribute to a person’s happiness, then gives it a monetary value depending on how much they impacted said happiness. 

While this tool is typically used to gauge job losses, income changes, or marital status, it can also be applied to pets and their companionship. The tool measures life satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 7. 

Drawing from over 2,600 data points in the UK Household Longitudinal Study, researchers analyzed household responses to see how pets shape our lives. By running regression models, they compared pet owners to those without animals, factoring in key variables like income, employment, health, and even personality traits to maintain a level playing field. 

Pets Increase Happiness and Life Satisfaction 

Correlation does not always equal causation. To understand why pets increase life satisfaction, they developed an instrument called “TOTORO,” based on how often a person was asked to watch over a neighbour’s property. 

The results? Startling. Dog owners saw a 2.93-point increase in life satisfaction, while cat owners saw an even higher increase at 3.74 points. For some context, those numbers rival the emotional lift of getting married.

When converted to pennies and pence, the researchers converted these well-being boosts into economic value, with benefits of up to £73,000 (about $83,000) a year. This figure lines up closely with how past studies have valued marriage or strong social bonds. In other words, research confirms what we have felt for some time; pets are not just companions, they are family. 

Pets as Companions Impacting Public Health 

“This research answers the question of whether overall pet companions are good for us with a resounding ‘Yes.’ Pets care for us and there is a significant monetary value associated with their companionship,” said Dr. Gschwandtner.“This information can be used for health care practice and policies aiming to increase well-being and life satisfaction of humans involving pets.”

How Pets Provide Emotional Comfort 

Even without a myriad of tools and tests, the soothing effect of nature and animals has been well-recognized. Simply watching a forest full of greenery or your dog or cat frolic about happily can improve your health by reducing your heart rate and blood pressure. 

Pets are even better than humans when it comes to alleviating stress too. Pets are known to lower cortisol (the stress hormone) levels, as well as act as a general mood booster. 

Pets also act as a support system during troublesome times. For example, pets can support your recovery during illness or injury, boost self-esteem, and help socialization. You won’t have to go far to meet someone who will compare the bond with their pet to the bond with their family. 

How Your Personality Influences Your Bond 

No two people are exactly alike, and no two people experience the same thing the same way. A pet parent’s personality influences both the decision to own a pet and the bond they subsequently develop/ 

For example, cat owners are typically open but not extroverted, while dog owners tend to be more agreeable and social. These patterns reiterate past research and suggest that personality might shape not just whether you own a pet, but which one you connect with. 

Compared to people without pets, pet owners scored higher on openness, extroversion, and conscientiousness compared to non-owners; all traits that are linked to higher life satisfaction.

By accounting for personality in their models, researchers ensured they were measuring the true effect of pets instead of the happiness of naturally sociable folks. In doing so, they tapped into a subtle but notable dynamic, wherein the type of companion you choose might reflect the kind of connection you seek. 

Pets to Replace Life Partners Emotionally? 

An unexpected area the study touched on was if pets may act as a substitute to human relationships. According to the data, unmarried pet owners had similar levels of life satisfaction to those in a relationship. It also suggests that pets indeed fill the emotional void of a partner. 

These findings are significant, because they challenge the notion that human contact is the only real form of social support. For such people, their dog or cat’s presence can be as emotionally satisfying as talking to a friend or loved one. Given how the modern world is isolated yet interconnected, pets may help bridge the gap. 

Rethinking the Role of Pets in Public Well-Being

When the emotional gains of living with a pet rival the benefits of marriage or close friendships, the conversation shifts from lifestyle choice to public health strategy.

If pets can lift life satisfaction by this much, then they deserve more serious attention in the policy arena. This could mean encouraging pet companionship among older adults and those living alone, expanding access to pet-friendly housing, or even offering support for pet care in low-income communities. The emotional return is high, perhaps higher than many traditional health interventions.

What makes this study stand out is its approach. Instead of asking people to put a price on their pets, it captures the emotional value indirectly through actual changes in reported well-being. That kind of evidence means policymakers have hard numbers to work with instead of mere anecdotal evidence. 

Still, pet ownership is not without its trade-offs. There is a fair amount of responsibility, cost, and care involved. But the benefits are far from theoretical; they show up in both economic models and the quiet routines of everyday life like morning walks, soft purrs, silent comfort.

In a world increasingly marked by isolation and emotional strain, pets may not be the whole answer, but they are certainly a massive piece of the puzzle. Companionship, it turns out, is not just bipedal and human in nature.