《中英對照讀新聞》Marriage Builds wealth more than being single-study 研究顯示：婚姻比單身積蓄更多財富

◎ 鄭寺音

Staying married has its benefits, especially financial, as a new U.S.-wide study shows the wealth of a married person is almost double that of somebody who is single.

維持婚姻有其好處，特別是在經濟方面，一份在全美國進行的新研究顯示，已婚者的財富幾乎是單身者的兩倍。

Divorce among U.S. baby boomers reduced personal wealth by about 77 percent compared to that of a single person, while the financial standing among those who remained married almost doubled.

美國嬰兒潮時期出生的人，離婚者的個人財富比單身者減少77%，而維持婚姻者的經濟狀況，幾乎比單身者好一倍。

"If you really want to increase your wealth, get married and stay married," said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and a research scientist at Ohio Sate University's Center for Human Resource Research.

「如果你真的要增加財富，結婚而且要維持婚姻，」這項研究的作者、俄亥俄州大學人力資源研究中心的科學家札柯斯基說。

Those who remained together saw a 93 percent gain in wealth compared to that of a single person, while individuals facing divorce saw their financial situation deteriorate long before the decree became final.

與單身者相比，維持婚姻的夫婦財富增加93%，而面臨離婚的人，財務狀況則早在離婚確定前就已經惡化。

Those respondents who remained single had a steady, but slow growth in wealth, from less than $2,000 at the start of the surveys up to an average of about $11,000 after 15 years.

維持單身的受訪者，財富穩定但緩慢成長，從研究一開始的不到2,000美元，15年後平均增加到約11,000美元。

However, those who married and stayed that way showed a sharp increase in wealth accumulation after marriage, growing to an average $43,000 by the 10th year of marriage or by about 16 percent a year.

然而，結婚並維持婚姻的人，結婚後財富積累顯著增加，在婚後第10年，財富平均成長到43,000 美元，等於是一年成長16%。

新聞辭典

standing：狀況、名聲、地位。She was an economist of considerable standing. （她是一位頗有名望的經濟學家。）

accumulation：名詞，累積、積聚，動詞為accumulate。例句：Over the years, he has accumulated hundreds of CDs.（多年來他已收藏數百張雷射唱片。）