No kids the secret to marital bliss

Want your marriage to work? Then don't have kids, according to a major UK study.

The research has found the magic formula for happiness in a relationship - and it doesn't include kids, reports Stuff.co.nz.

As part of the study, researchers at the Institute for Social and Economic Research asked both people in a couple to rate their happiness on a scale - from the low score of 'extremely unhappy' to 'happy' in the middle and up to "perfect".

Married couples topped cohabiting couples in the happiness stakes, as 90% of married women and 93% of married men rated themselves as happy or above.

For cohabiting couples, 88% of women and 92% of men were at least happy.

The happiest couples were those in which both people were educated to degree level, had no children, had been together for less than five years and the man was employed.

The figures are early results from the, which is tracking the socio-economic circumstances in 40,000 British households.