The article focuses on the relationship between marital status and life satisfaction in the countries of Europe. The first part of the article discusses subjective evaluations of life satisfaction and the theoretical concepts that explain differences in the levels of life satisfaction according to marital status. The second part of the article is devoted to empirical analyses of data from the European Social Survey (ESS), the results of which indicate that in the countries studied married people tend to be more satisfied with life than others, even though the strength of this effect varies. The differences in the effect of marriage cannot be ascribed to a given society's divorce rate. In some countries the life satisfaction of the cohabiting population is almost as high as for married people, while in other countries it is closer to the level of life satisfaction observed among single people, and in other countries the level of satisfaction of the cohabitating individuals lies midway between married and single people.