Marriage is bliss for women

Married women are twice as happy as their single counterparts.

This is according to SHE - an online study conducted by Discovery Networks among 5500 women aged 20 to 49 from 11 countries across Europe, Russia and South Africa.

Forty-six percent of married women were happy with their lives, compared with 40% of those cohabiting and 32% of women in relationships.

However, only 21% of single women said they were happy with their lives.

Furthermore, nearly half of women married for more than 10 years said they were as happy as newlyweds.

However, relationships were not the biggest contributor to women's happiness. Overall, the happiest women felt confident and in control of their lives (65%).

"It is not just material things . that make women happy, but their attitude to life," said James Gibbons, manager of Discovery Networks in Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Good health also ranked above good looks.

Gibbons said South Africa was the "only participating country that rated family and friends above having a loving partner".

When it came to partners, the top three traits South African women look for in a man are supportive and loyal (88%), honest (80%) and a good sense of humour (64%).

When women across the world rated their top traits in a man, money scored 18% and a good body just 8%.