Being Single

Living alone is a modern phenomenon. For most of history, very few people lived alone. In the U.S., even as recently as 1960, only 7 million people lived alone; they accounted for just 13 percent of all households. By 2020, more than five times as many Americans were living alone, 36.2 million. Of course, the entire population was growing, but even as a proportion of all households, the rate of living alone had more than doubled, to 28 percent. Now, if you were to knock on any door at random in the U.S., you would be more likely to find a person living alone than a nuclear household of mom, dad, and kids. Studies of dozens of countries all around the world show a similar trend. In the decades since 1960, the proportion of people living alone has been on the rise. That's in part because of another global phenomenon—the rise of single people and the decline of marriage. But it's not only that; historically, unmarried people (widowed, divorced, or always single) were more likely to live with other people than to live on their own. Tune in and learn all about being single!

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