On average, married people are healthier than unmarried people. With the rapid growth of unmarried cohabitation, scholars have wondered whether health differences between married individuals and unmarried cohabitants diminished. Using pooled data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (2000–2001, 2005, 2010, and 2017–2018), I investigated associations between marital status and self-perceived health in the understudied Canadian context, which is marked by regional differences in the histories and meanings of unmarried cohabitation. Cohabitation has a longer history in Québec, where it is considered as an alternative to marriage, whereas in the rest of Canada it is typically seen as a childless prelude that could lead to marriage. Findings show that, in Québec, individuals living common-law (a particular type of unmarried cohabitation) were just as likely as married individuals to report very good or excellent health. In the rest of Canada, the probability of reporting very good or excellent health was consistently lower for individuals living common-law compared to married individuals. Future research should investigate why health differences between married individuals and those living common-law continue to be observed outside of Québec, despite the increasing practice and cultural acceptance of this type of union across the country.

平均而言，已婚人士比未婚人士更健康。随着未婚同居的快速增长，学者们想知道已婚个体和未婚同居者之间的健康差异是否正在缩小。使用来自加拿大社区健康调查（2000-2001 年、2005 年、2010 年和 2017-2018 年）的汇总数据，我调查了在未被充分研究的加拿大背景下婚姻状况与自我感知健康之间的关联，其特点是历史上存在地区差异以及未婚同居的意义。同居在魁北克有较长的历史，在那里它被认为是婚姻的替代选择，而在加拿大其他地区，同居通常被视为可能导致婚姻的无子女前奏。调查结果显示，在魁北克，普通法同居者（一种特殊类型的未婚同居者）与已婚者一样有可能报告说健康状况非常好或极好。在加拿大其他地区，与已婚人士相比，同居人士报告健康状况良好或极佳的可能性一直较低。未来的研究应该调查为什么在魁北克以外的地方继续观察到已婚个体和普通法同居者之间的健康差异，尽管这种类型的结合在全国范围内的实践和文化接受度越来越高。