The positive educational gradient in health is well established: highly educated are less likely to report bad symptoms. Also, differences in terms of age between the two partners are found to affect both health and mortality. In this paper, educational and age-based inequalities were studied at the European level by taking into account the clustered nature of individuals within the couples. A sample of 37,858 men and women (18,929 couples) was derived from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, wave 5). A two-level linear random effect regression model for binary outcomes has been performed to distinguish the individual-based and couple-based contribution in reporting two or more chronic diseases. Preliminary results show how within-couple differences in education are not statistically significant, differently from the between-couple differences. Results suggest that the protective role given by a high educational does extend to the couple, regardless differences in terms of years of education within the couple.