This paper uses data from the first wave of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to examine the role of marriage and family characteristics in explaining variations across individuals in self-reported life satisfaction. A feature of this analysis is the data source - a large nationally representative sample of Australian households and their members - allowing inclusion of an extensive set of controls for other variables typically presumed to influence subjective well-being. This paper was presented at the Eighth Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference.