Winning the lottery is usually imagined as a solution to life’s problems.
A paid-off house. No more financial stress. More freedom. More time with family.
But new research suggests a sudden increase in wealth can also change relationships in unexpected ways — including who gets married, who has children and, in some cases, who gets divorced.
A study highlighted by PsyPost examined tens of thousands of lottery players in Sweden and found that large financial windfalls appeared to affect men’s and women’s family lives differently.
For men, gaining wealth was associated with a greater likelihood of marriage and having children.
For married women, however, a sudden financial windfall temporarily increased the likelihood of divorce.
The researchers caution that this does not mean money automatically destroys marriages. Instead, the findings point toward something more complicated: financial security may change the choices people feel able to make.
What the Researchers Studied
The research, titled Fortunate Families? The Effects of Wealth on Marriage and Fertility, was conducted by David Cesarini, Erik Lindqvist, Robert Östling and Anastasia Terskaya.
The study has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Human Resources, and an earlier version is available through the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Researchers examined 76,859 Swedish lottery players, comparing people who participated in similar lotteries but happened to win different amounts.
That distinction matters.
One of the biggest challenges in studying money and relationships is separating wealth itself from all the other differences between wealthy and lower-income households.
For example, people with higher incomes may also have different:
- Education levels
- Career opportunities
- Social networks
- Ages
- Family backgrounds
- Personality traits
Lottery winnings provide researchers with something closer to a natural experiment because winning a larger prize is primarily the result of chance.
By comparing people who played under similar circumstances but experienced different financial outcomes, researchers were able to better isolate the influence of sudden wealth.
Wealth Appeared to Increase Men’s Chances of Marriage
One of the most striking findings involved unmarried male lottery winners.
According to the study, receiving approximately 1 million Swedish kronor, equivalent to roughly $140,000 in the researchers’ calculations, increased an unmarried man’s probability of getting married within five years by about 4.7 percentage points.
The baseline five-year marriage rate among the group was around 16%, meaning the increase represented roughly a 30% jump relative to that starting point.
The effect appeared particularly strong among men who earned below-median incomes before winning.
Researchers suggested several possible explanations.
One possibility is that financial security makes marriage easier. Housing, weddings, children and long-term financial commitments can all be expensive, and additional resources may remove barriers that previously caused couples to delay marriage.
Another possibility involves how financial stability affects someone’s perceived desirability as a partner.
The researchers note that previous economic and social research has repeatedly found a relationship between men’s earnings and marriage rates.
However, the new study cannot definitively determine why wealth increased men’s likelihood of marriage.
For Women, the Effect Looked Very Different
Researchers did not find the same clear increase in marriage rates among female lottery winners.
Instead, the most notable result involved women who were already married.
Women who received large lottery winnings experienced a temporary increase in their likelihood of divorce.
A windfall of approximately 1 million Swedish kronor increased the probability of divorce within two years by nearly 4 percentage points, compared with a baseline divorce rate of around 4%.
At first glance, that might sound as though winning money caused marriages to fall apart.
The researchers say that interpretation is probably too simplistic.
Importantly, the divorce effect largely disappeared when researchers looked at a longer ten-year period.
That suggests the money may not have created divorces that would never have happened otherwise.
Instead, it may have accelerated divorces that were already likely to occur.
Financial Independence May Change the Timing of Divorce
The strongest divorce effect appeared among women who had relatively low incomes before receiving the lottery winnings.
That finding supports a long-discussed idea in relationship economics: some people may remain in unhappy marriages partly because leaving is financially difficult.
Divorce can involve major expenses and financial disruptions.
A separating spouse may suddenly need to pay for:
- New housing
- Legal representation
- Moving expenses
- Childcare
- Separate utilities
- Transportation
- Household furnishings
There may also be questions involving property division, support and custody.
A large financial windfall could therefore remove a barrier that previously made leaving an unhappy relationship financially unrealistic.
The researchers specifically suggested that increased financial independence could allow some women to act sooner on a decision they were already considering.
For couples confronting those kinds of financial and legal questions in California, consulting a divorce attorney in San Francisco can help explain how issues such as property division, support and other family-law considerations may apply to their circumstances.
Money may not create relationship problems by itself, but it can dramatically change the options available to someone who was already considering a major life change.
Money and Marriage Have Long Been Connected
The idea that finances influence marriage is hardly new.
Economists have studied the relationship between money, marriage and family formation for decades.
One of the most influential frameworks came from economist Gary Becker, who examined marriage through an economic lens and argued that individuals weigh the benefits of remaining single against the potential benefits of marriage.
Modern research has continued exploring how employment, income and economic stability influence family decisions.
For example, researchers have found relationships between employment stability and marriage formation, while other studies have examined how job losses and economic shocks affect divorce.
The new lottery research is particularly useful because the wealth increase happens suddenly and largely by chance.
That helps researchers distinguish between the effects of having money and the characteristics that typically help someone earn it.
The Study Also Found an Effect on Fertility
Marriage and divorce were not the only family outcomes researchers examined.
Lottery winnings were also associated with an increase in the number of children male winners had.
Over a ten-year period, researchers estimated that each additional 1 million kronor in lottery wealth was associated with approximately 0.056 additional children among male winners.
That may sound small, but across a large population it becomes statistically meaningful.
Researchers estimate that some of the increase occurred because wealthier male winners were also more likely to marry and less likely to divorce.
The fertility increase among women was smaller and not statistically significant.
Again, researchers emphasized that the results should not be interpreted as proof that money universally encourages people to have children.
Instead, the findings suggest that additional financial resources can influence family decisions at the population level.
Why the Swedish Setting Matters
There is an important limitation to the research: all of the participants lived in Sweden.
Sweden differs from the United States in several significant ways.
The country has a comparatively strong social safety net, widespread access to public services and different laws and cultural norms surrounding marriage, divorce and family life.
Researchers therefore caution against assuming the exact numbers would apply to American couples.
The authors suggest the findings are more likely to translate to other high-income countries with similar economic and social structures.
Even so, the underlying idea may still be relevant elsewhere.
Financial resources affect people’s choices.
Housing, childcare, legal costs and everyday living expenses can influence decisions about marriage, children and divorce regardless of country.
The Research Does Not Mean Money Causes Divorce
The most important takeaway may be what the study doesn’t show.
Winning money did not produce a permanent surge in divorces among female winners.
The effect was concentrated in the short term.
That distinction suggests that sudden wealth may have changed when some divorces occurred rather than whether those marriages would ultimately end.
As researcher Anastasia Terskaya explained to PsyPost, the findings are better understood as evidence that some women face financial barriers to leaving relationships.
Once those barriers disappear, decisions that were previously delayed may happen sooner.
The study’s authors also acknowledge that they cannot directly measure every factor that might explain the results.
The data does not reveal details such as:
- Relationship satisfaction
- Household conflict
- Emotional compatibility
- Financial disagreements
- Division of household labor
- Individual motivations for divorce
That means researchers can identify patterns without knowing precisely what happened inside each marriage.
Wealth Can Change More Than a Bank Account
Sudden wealth is often described as purely positive.
Financial security can reduce stress, create opportunities and provide families with choices they previously did not have.
But choices are exactly what make this research interesting.
Money may allow one person to feel ready for marriage.
It may make another couple feel financially secure enough to have a child.
And for someone who has felt financially trapped in an unhappy relationship, money may make leaving possible.
That does not mean wealth determines the future of a relationship.
It means financial circumstances are one of many forces shaping the decisions people make about their lives.
The lottery study offers an unusually clear glimpse into that connection.
Money may not buy happiness — but according to this research, it can sometimes change which paths people feel free to take.