Australia's "Sex and the City" singles unhappy: study

Office workers rush across a city street during peak hour in central Sydney May 20, 2008.

CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) - They are cashed-up and child-free, but Australia's ranks of "Sex and the City" working singles are among the least satisfied in the country, according to a government study.

A partner and happy home were now seen as more important than a successful career while single, the study, which profiled Australia's 21 million population, has found.

Only marginalized Australians, struggling to find food and a roof, were less satisfied, it added.

"Working Age Singles reported roughly average levels of feeling rushed or pressed for time, and also of having too much spare time, and low to middling levels of life satisfaction," the Family Department study said.

At average age 33, "Working Age Singles" were the youngest of the five major population groupings, the study said.

Most were healthy and high-income renters, with low reliance on welfare and a quarter having completed a university degree.

But singles were less content than almost all other groups including socially connected retirees and time-pressured and stressed couples with children.

Singles were more likely to smoke, consume alcohol, spend big and avoid repayments on their credit cards, the study said. They were also more in touch with friends and family.

But many were also unhappy renting in a country where home ownership is a national obsession, made more difficult by soaring house prices and mortgage repayment rates at 12-year highs.

"Because of their dissatisfaction with a number of facets of their lives compared with other groups in comparable or worse circumstances, this group is renamed 'Dissatisfied Working Age Singles'," said the study, based on a survey of 6,000 adults.

The survey confirmed reports by the statistics bureau that Australians were steering away from marriage, with the proportion of singles rising from 20 percent to 25 percent in around a decade, while couples without children were also on the rise.

Single households are expected to rise from 1.8 million in 2001 to more that 3 million in 2026, when Australia's population will reach 24 million.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)