These Are the Jobs Where People Are Most Likely to Marry Each Other

You’ve probably heard that you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure, but a new study suggests that intermingling the two may just be what your love life needs – that is, if you’re in certain professions. Read on to find out if your personal and professional stars align and make for a happily ever after.

(Photo Credit: Loren Javier/Flickr)

Priceonomics, a San Francisco-based data analysis company, analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau to determine which professions are more likely to have married partners from the same profession, as opposed to partners having differing professions. (Note that the Census thus far only measures data for opposite-sex couples; same-sex couple data will be included soon.)

Data from over 40 million married couples showed that “lawyers, farmers and those working in education were most likely to marry people with similar professions,” reports Priceonomics’ Dan Kopf, whereas “[m]iners, construction workers and people in finance” are least likely to marry within their professions. See the analysis’s full findings, here.

Why Are Some Occupations Lucky in (Same-Industry) Love?

The Washington Post says it has something to do with diversity in a given profession, meaning geography and gender ratios. For instance, people in farming, fishing, and forestry top the list (25 percent) for most likely to marry someone within the same occupation, and the reason for this is most likely that “these are industries centered in rural communities, where there is a less diverse mix of occupations.”

Likewise, professionals who hold jobs in industries that are more gender-biased (e.g. construction for men, personal care and appearance for women) probably find it hard to locate a match of the opposite sex within their industry.

Said simply, industries that have a more balanced gender makeup are likely to top the list of jobs where people tend to marry each other. For example, the gender ratio for sales occupations (third on the list above) is almost 50/50 for men and women, which makes finding an opposite-sex mate with the same occupation more probable.

However, Priceonomics says that the “gender balance does not explain the reason for all of the occupational groups with the highest probability of coupling,” such as education (in the top five above), where women represent 77 percent of the industry.

One thing is true, according to the study: choosing a career in law gives you a good chance at finding love there, too. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Lawyer up.”

Be sure to also check out Priceonomics’ post to see which college majors are most likely to marry each other. Pretty interesting stuff, people.

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